How will we be remembered?
If you're like me, you probably love the great curiosity-induced sport of people watching. Usually you'll notice some things about that person, maybe guess at their life a little.
However, when I survey the smorgasbord of humanity, I can't tell who has a better retirement plan, or who cheated on their last test, or doesn't recycle. There is no aura of 'ate the last cookie' or 'just got their dream job'. I won't know who is an only child or just lost a pet. Sure, we might be able to guess with decent accuracy at the mood of an individual, or whether or not they're in a hurry. But generally speaking, we really have no idea about the people that are around us.
Yet we all have a few things in common. We all came from some people before us. We all inhabit the same planet. We all grew up somewhere. We all argue whether it's 'pop' or 'soda'.
(It's pop.)
And though I believe there are people in this world with little or no love in their hearts, I also believe that the vast majority of us values love and respect and human kindness above anything else.
Nobody gets out of this world alive, and we really don't get to take any of it with us. We aren't even remembered for who we truly are by anybody besides the people around us.
What echoes throughout eternity is the love that we pass on and share with one another. It doesn't have to come from any one place or person in particular, it comes from all of us and none of us at the same time. This divine energy is the fire that we give to one another. It is the truest form of love, and therefore life.
Long may we burn.
Above is a photo of my mother, a woman who has carried the torch, lit the candle, and reminded me of my own little fire, stealing cherries from an overgrown orchard in the south of France.
😀