Why seek to be remembered in a century, a millennium, or 10,000 years in the future? What's the point in having one's name — a mere string of sounds — associated with some act of fame? Will one be any less dead for being cited in textbooks, for leaving behind monuments, or for having created some ongoing "foundation" or "corporation"? What's the point?
Wouldn't it be better to be utterly forgotten, but to have done some immediate good that helped real living creatures? ... to have been a friend to the lonely? ... to have shared kindness with the fearful? ... to have made life better for individuals suffering from illness, hunger, poverty, or ignorance?
Rewards come not from labels, but from deeds — quiet, anonymous deeds done in the here and now. Those deeds echo, through time and across space. They add to the only wealth that we have: the lights of knowledge, peace, love, and hope for all ... quickening and dawning around the world.
Tuesday, December 07, 1999 at 20:59:11 (EST) = 1999-12-07
(correlates: StrawberryFields, SeeingStars0, OffTheGrid, ...)