Yesterday I helped plan and celebrate a memorial service for a friend who died. I did not know her too well, but well enough to know that her impact on people and institutions was significant. In part this significant impact was the money she was able to give. But money is not the whole story. There are plenty of rich people who can give tons of money, but their legacy is nothing to celebrate. Of course, money is necessary---even to non-profit organizations. But money does not necessarily change lives.
I am old enough to know a thing or two about legacy. I am not too sure younger folks have a sense for legacy---nor should they. If they ask me about legacy, I usually respond fairly simply by saying legacy is what you leave behind. This does not mean you have to be dead to leave a legacy. But you do have to be done to have the legacy. Obviously, people who die have their legacy. It might be significant or insignificant. Insignificant legacies do not make any impact, nor do they last. Many people live unremarkable lives and their legacy is unremarkable. In no time they are forgotten.
Other people impact lives or institutions. A very good high school athlete might leave a legacy in his or her sport---a legacy which lives long after the athlete has graduated and moved on. Some legacies are quantifiable and can be put in the books. These kinds of legacies are things like fastest half mile or most points scored in a game. These legacies serve as a benchmark for those athletes who come after. These legacies set the bar for excellence and are a means for inspiring others to achieve similar results.
More often than not, legacy is a term applied to older people. And it is usually part of the conversation when a person dies. There is a connection between death and legacy. Death is certain and final; life is finished. What is left is legacy. We say something to the effect, our legacy lives on. Legacy is like a lasting reputation, but it is also more. Reputation normally is not transformative of other people. Legacies can be transformative. Let me elaborate.
I use as an example the person we just eulogized. She gave some significant money to support programs that make a difference in some students’ lives. She did not have a direct impact on students’ lives. And yet her indirect impact underwrote programs which did make a difference in the lives of students. You could watch students grow and develop and become incomparably better and more capable because of the programs supported by her money. Even she could see results. In this case the results were enhanced lives. This is a powerful legacy.
Because she has invested money in programs, her legacy---her impact indirectly on lives---and will continue way beyond her being known by others. What intrigues me are the people who leave legacies, but it has little to do with money. The legacy is connected to something other than dollars. This may be simple as in a family where the grandmother or some figure has lived such a life as to leave a legacy. You hear grandkids talking about the old woman and may never had met her. They “know” her even though they never knew her!
This is the kind of legacies most of us will leave. When we die, most of us won’t be famous or remembered by huge numbers of people. But legacies are not a numbers game. Legacy is an impact game---a difference-maker game. The legacy question is really a question about whether I or we actually mattered. Is there anything about us---about our life and impact---that made any difference to others. We can trace legacy when we can point to the good that we did in life somehow continues to be done in the lives of others. This is where grandmothers are such a good example.
Grandmothers have reputations of being past their own egos. It seems most grandmothers exist for the sake of others---family members and others in their circle of influence. Grandmothers are givers, not takers. Somehow they naturally seem to care and share. Perhaps those are the twin themes of legacies: caring and sharing. Effective legacies are stories about people who cared and who shared. Somehow their caring and sharing live long past their death. In death they still impact people and make a difference.
I think the best legacies are unintentional. People with really good legacies did not live life in order to make a legacy. The legacy is a fruit of their lives lived well. This is true particularly with legacies not associated with money. The most famous, of course, are people like Jesus, the Buddha and Muhammed. They did not leave money, but their legacies have left continued, long-lasting and transformative effects on the world. Most of us are not going to operate at that level.
There is a way in which these three giants of religious life---Jesus, the Buddha and Muhammed--- still cast a shadow on the lives of contemporary women and men. Maybe that is a good image to understand legacy. A legacy is our shadow of impact and influence on others. The real legacy is the shadow that continues after the light of our physical life is extinguished. You have to have light to have shadow.
Perhaps we leave our best legacy by living in the Light and living such that that Light still shines after we are gone.
I am old enough to know a thing or two about legacy. I am not too sure younger folks have a sense for legacy---nor should they. If they ask me about legacy, I usually respond fairly simply by saying legacy is what you leave behind. This does not mean you have to be dead to leave a legacy. But you do have to be done to have the legacy. Obviously, people who die have their legacy. It might be significant or insignificant. Insignificant legacies do not make any impact, nor do they last. Many people live unremarkable lives and their legacy is unremarkable. In no time they are forgotten.
Other people impact lives or institutions. A very good high school athlete might leave a legacy in his or her sport---a legacy which lives long after the athlete has graduated and moved on. Some legacies are quantifiable and can be put in the books. These kinds of legacies are things like fastest half mile or most points scored in a game. These legacies serve as a benchmark for those athletes who come after. These legacies set the bar for excellence and are a means for inspiring others to achieve similar results.
More often than not, legacy is a term applied to older people. And it is usually part of the conversation when a person dies. There is a connection between death and legacy. Death is certain and final; life is finished. What is left is legacy. We say something to the effect, our legacy lives on. Legacy is like a lasting reputation, but it is also more. Reputation normally is not transformative of other people. Legacies can be transformative. Let me elaborate.
I use as an example the person we just eulogized. She gave some significant money to support programs that make a difference in some students’ lives. She did not have a direct impact on students’ lives. And yet her indirect impact underwrote programs which did make a difference in the lives of students. You could watch students grow and develop and become incomparably better and more capable because of the programs supported by her money. Even she could see results. In this case the results were enhanced lives. This is a powerful legacy.
Because she has invested money in programs, her legacy---her impact indirectly on lives---and will continue way beyond her being known by others. What intrigues me are the people who leave legacies, but it has little to do with money. The legacy is connected to something other than dollars. This may be simple as in a family where the grandmother or some figure has lived such a life as to leave a legacy. You hear grandkids talking about the old woman and may never had met her. They “know” her even though they never knew her!
This is the kind of legacies most of us will leave. When we die, most of us won’t be famous or remembered by huge numbers of people. But legacies are not a numbers game. Legacy is an impact game---a difference-maker game. The legacy question is really a question about whether I or we actually mattered. Is there anything about us---about our life and impact---that made any difference to others. We can trace legacy when we can point to the good that we did in life somehow continues to be done in the lives of others. This is where grandmothers are such a good example.
Grandmothers have reputations of being past their own egos. It seems most grandmothers exist for the sake of others---family members and others in their circle of influence. Grandmothers are givers, not takers. Somehow they naturally seem to care and share. Perhaps those are the twin themes of legacies: caring and sharing. Effective legacies are stories about people who cared and who shared. Somehow their caring and sharing live long past their death. In death they still impact people and make a difference.
I think the best legacies are unintentional. People with really good legacies did not live life in order to make a legacy. The legacy is a fruit of their lives lived well. This is true particularly with legacies not associated with money. The most famous, of course, are people like Jesus, the Buddha and Muhammed. They did not leave money, but their legacies have left continued, long-lasting and transformative effects on the world. Most of us are not going to operate at that level.
There is a way in which these three giants of religious life---Jesus, the Buddha and Muhammed--- still cast a shadow on the lives of contemporary women and men. Maybe that is a good image to understand legacy. A legacy is our shadow of impact and influence on others. The real legacy is the shadow that continues after the light of our physical life is extinguished. You have to have light to have shadow.
Perhaps we leave our best legacy by living in the Light and living such that that Light still shines after we are gone.
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