We all die and our bodies are handed back to Mother Nature. What is left of us then?
I have a little booklet I keep for an exercise I call “You are who you’ve met.” It lists everybody that’s had an effect on who I am and one sentence about what I learned from then. It includes my family, friends, foes, and even fictional characters. Sometimes the sentence I write down is the same, but the person it’s attached to gives it a different context, and therefor a completely different meaning.
The idea here is that we pass on values to others simply by interacting with them. Those values are then passed onto others. I think this is what makes us immortal. While our bodies may no longer exist, we passed on values from many beings to many others.
Sometimes, our name is attached to these values. Think historical figures, and how they’re existence is a symbol that signifies the values we pass on when telling their story. Religion and story tellers (like Disney) use stories to pass on values. It’s because we humans remember experiences, and stories are a way for us to experience someone else’s life. Values taught through stories are “stickier”.
So if you want to pass on the values that you believe make the world a better place, live a story worth telling, one that teaches the values you feel blessed to have learned from others. Be immortal. Live an epic story.
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