LEGACIES (Part one)

Eric · September 14, 2026

In a period of time, often shorter than the duration of our lives, most of us will cease to have existed at all.

At some point during your life, unfortunately, you will die. Within weeks of your funeral, the world resumes its normal pace. Within a year, estate matters are settled. Within 30 years, coworkers and acquaintances have forgotten you. Within 80 years, your direct descendants treat you as an abstract historical fact rather than a remembered person.

In a period of time, often shorter than the duration of our lives, most of us will cease to have existed at all.

It begs the question, is trying to construct a legacy a waste of time?

If your goal is to have your name carved in stone, your face on a building, or your name printed in a textbook, the pursuit of a legacy is largely a waste of energy. Monuments crumble, names are stripped from buildings, and digital footprints are overwritten.Chasing this kind of legacy forces you to live for the approval of future strangers rather than enjoying your actual life. It is an attempt to solve death anxiety by bargaining for a counterfeit version of immortality.

Every action you take alters the trajectory of the universe in microscopic ways. If you treat a child with kindness, they grow up slightly more secure and treat their children better. If you plant a tree, it provides shade for people you will never meet.

The desire for a legacy comes from a fear that our lives don't matter unless they endure. But a flower is not meaningless just because it wilts in a week; its beauty and value exist entirely because it is present right now.

When you die, you will be forgotten quickly by the world—but you were never meant to carry the weight of being remembered forever anyway.