Legacy

My friends and I were talking about life and the fact we were nearer the end than the beginning. One of the things we talked about was our "legacy. As with many of our discussions, we had many different opinions about what "legacy" even involved.

For one or two of us, it was about what knowledge, insights, and values you passed on to your friends and family. For others, it was about the material things you left for others. One friend mentioned the impact your life may have had on others.

What I thought was interesting was when the term first came up in discussion, many of us thought of the term 'legacy' as one frequently used by organizational fundraisers seeking money for endowments.

We quickly moved on from that idea, but I thought the advertising is working. One of my friends suggested that legacy can mean anything you are passing along (photos and records) from your own or your family's history.

I made the observation that many youngsters don't seem to want treasured household goods (or cars) these days. Everyone agreed that was an issue, but no one had figured out a way to solve this problem. As boomers many of us were collectors and now we have these, what we think, are wonderful collections, that very few of our family values or want to have today.

One of the best ideas that came out of the discussion was the idea of creating a Life Storybook might be a good example of a family legacy, and the group agrees that carrying your memory on through the years by whatever means is the broadest definition.