Mortality
It goes without saying that we all know our time on this earth is finite. There will come a day for each of us that our life is over and all that remains is what we’ve created and the memories of us that survive in other peoples' minds. Those memories aren’t what we truly were, just how people perceived us. That inner “you”, call it your consciousness or soul, is no longer part of this world.
Nothing about these ideas is profound, but it does raise a few questions that deserve to be answered.
- What have you built that will outlive you?
- How long will it last?
- How have you impacted others (good/bad)?
- How will you now spend your time knowing the answers to these questions?
I actually want to address that last point first, and I’ll start by making the distinction between 2 different lifestyles.
Producers and consumers
Consuming is time watching T.V., browsing the internet, buying luxuries, and just consuming in general. To be clear, every person is both a consumer and a producer, it’s a spectrum not a binary classification. At the very minimum, we produce by working at a job, and we have to consume when we eat or use materials we didn’t directly create.
The real question is:
“To what extent should we produce vs consume?”
A life of mostly consumption would result in nothing of you being left when you are gone. People who mostly consumed don’t get remembered in history, or even within their family ancestry to a certain point. It’s harsh to point out, but people like to say things such as “George Washington was my great-great-grandfather” and yet have not so much pride in pointing out George Washington’s own son, who still matters in respect to them being alive.
We admire something about people who produce and impact the world. If history is anything to go by, most people will be relegated to the void and nothing of them will ever be known. It is no easy task to “live forever”. For this reason, I would lean towards more producing and less consuming.
Personally, I don’t feel like I need to be known by everyone, but I’d prefer to at least be remembered by someone in the future indefinitely. In my mind, it would be sad to be forgotten forever and for everything I am to be lost in time.
Building something that lasts
Whether it’s something creative and ethereal such as Mozart’s symphonies, or concrete and practical, like the Great Wall of China, each has stood the test of time and is known by every individual. On the other hand, artifacts such as stone tools have lasted longer, and also through many collapses of civilization, mainly due to their simple nature. It goes to show that there is room for all of us to do something to leave our mark on the world.
Leaving a mark on the world is something I’ve always aspired to be able to do. Since becoming a father, I have a newfound respect for our ability to create something that will outlast us. It gives me hope that we can inspire and advance the people that come after us through our own actions, even simple ones. We need not compete with the likes of Mozart to make an impact, start with what you are good at and own it.
It’s worth your time to wonder how long the things you build will last, and who they will positively impact. We owe it to our fellow humans to build things that will wholly benefit them, not just in the present moment, but hopefully, forever.