I attended a Christmas Tea in an old historic house today, the former home of General George Crook, and his wife Mary, on what used to be Fort Omaha. Built in 1876, the home has been meticulously restored by people dedicated to preserving the history of the time and maintaining the memory of its occupants.
This hand-stitched sampler was hanging in one of the bedrooms.
I asked our tour guide who the gentleman was and she said no one knew.
Most of us will be remembered with great love for a few generations and perhaps with all of today’s technology our digital lives will be around for a bit longer but ultimately, the people who know us will also die and we’ll no longer be talked about or actively remembered. Our photo albums could very well end up in an antique store, collected and/or used for reasons that are no longer personal to us. The handwriting on our letters will fade. Our Facebook posts, blogs and emails will be buried in the immense glut of digital correspondence that is entered on the internet on a hourly basis.
Not many of us will be historical personalities like General and Mrs. Crook. We won’t have homes named after us and very few of us will end up in history books. In a century and a half our pictures could very well be hanging somewhere as part of a museum display but no one will remember our names.
So perhaps our lives are ultimately not about posterity or anyone knowing who we are two hundred years from now. Instead let’s concentrate on simply making our little corners of the world a better place to be on this very day.
And that will be legacy enough, for enough time to sustain those who loved us while we were alive.
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