Pressure writing. Time to try something new. Lots of noise and no calm.
I was thinking the other day about the people I meet on a daily basis. I started to wonder about these encounters and how they would be remembered. I have plenty of people in my life that see me fairly regularly, so they have a solid idea of what I am as a person. My legacy in their eyes is pretty much set in stone. I started to wonder about how people see me. From the one-time meetings to the daily encounters there would be something different to all of them. What a lovely kinda freedom in that knowledge. Here is what I mean.
The random female who is driving her escalade down the freeway late on a Friday afternoon. It's raining outside and visibility is less than perfect. I get a call on my cell phone as I attempt to maneuver around a big rig truck. I do all the instinctual things that come with being a professional driver to make this move go smoothly. Somewhere between my turn signals and my merging and my getting the news that it would cost more to fix my lovely mazda protege I may have cut this escalade driver off. I still can't picture doing it, but the phone conversation was distracting enough that I have no clear image of seeing her vehicle as I merged right into the freeway exit lane. I got to then be on the receiving end of a furious exchange of bird flippings and yellings through her window. She did have a cell phone in her ear as well, so perhaps she wasn't as focused on the road either. I could only smile as the 10-second rant came and went. She pulled off the freeway and I will never see her again in my life. I am forever implanted in her head as an asshole driver who almost killed her. I am sure the rest of that day I was the brunt of her anger as she explained the details of our almost meeting to all within earshot. My legacy was set and I could do nothing to change that. With that incident came this.
SO WHAT!
I will never see her again. I won't be able to fix any of my mistakes or alter her perception of me. And I am comfortable with that. I will hundreds of people like this in my life. Maybe not in this manner, but there are countless people I will never see again. This allows me the freedom to say that for some instances in my life I have no consequences to my actions. I can behave as I wish and it will not come back to bite me. How peaceful.
Now as far as the longer legacies I will leave it always seems to come back around to something that is slightly morbid. What will they say at my funeral? And who will actually be there?
To me, I have a slightly negative view of this scene. I find myself being described through the life of someone else. My title might be so-and-so's brother, or a fellow co-worker as opposed to simply being defined by my own name. My legacy will be the same to everyone and that kinda bugs me. Nice, descent, caring...........There are tons of people like me out there. There may be scenes in my life that stand out to others that help define me to them, but it's no more of less different from any other young male walking round the world at the moment.
This makes me wonder how I can change that legacy with all of these people. And if I go about making this change just for this sole purpose of giving them something more interesting to remember me by am I somehow completely ignoring my present-day life. I know this can get into the more philosophical way of thinking about life, but just a thought I had. It's probably cause I had some moments happen recently that altered how I see people around me on a daily basis. Some things changed for the worse. Others improved my POV on them. And at those funerals I will now say something a lil different about them. So think about that sometimes and go in peace my friends. Legacies will always be changing. It's very fluid. Rabble Rock!
I was thinking the other day about the people I meet on a daily basis. I started to wonder about these encounters and how they would be remembered. I have plenty of people in my life that see me fairly regularly, so they have a solid idea of what I am as a person. My legacy in their eyes is pretty much set in stone. I started to wonder about how people see me. From the one-time meetings to the daily encounters there would be something different to all of them. What a lovely kinda freedom in that knowledge. Here is what I mean.
The random female who is driving her escalade down the freeway late on a Friday afternoon. It's raining outside and visibility is less than perfect. I get a call on my cell phone as I attempt to maneuver around a big rig truck. I do all the instinctual things that come with being a professional driver to make this move go smoothly. Somewhere between my turn signals and my merging and my getting the news that it would cost more to fix my lovely mazda protege I may have cut this escalade driver off. I still can't picture doing it, but the phone conversation was distracting enough that I have no clear image of seeing her vehicle as I merged right into the freeway exit lane. I got to then be on the receiving end of a furious exchange of bird flippings and yellings through her window. She did have a cell phone in her ear as well, so perhaps she wasn't as focused on the road either. I could only smile as the 10-second rant came and went. She pulled off the freeway and I will never see her again in my life. I am forever implanted in her head as an asshole driver who almost killed her. I am sure the rest of that day I was the brunt of her anger as she explained the details of our almost meeting to all within earshot. My legacy was set and I could do nothing to change that. With that incident came this.
SO WHAT!
I will never see her again. I won't be able to fix any of my mistakes or alter her perception of me. And I am comfortable with that. I will hundreds of people like this in my life. Maybe not in this manner, but there are countless people I will never see again. This allows me the freedom to say that for some instances in my life I have no consequences to my actions. I can behave as I wish and it will not come back to bite me. How peaceful.
Now as far as the longer legacies I will leave it always seems to come back around to something that is slightly morbid. What will they say at my funeral? And who will actually be there?
To me, I have a slightly negative view of this scene. I find myself being described through the life of someone else. My title might be so-and-so's brother, or a fellow co-worker as opposed to simply being defined by my own name. My legacy will be the same to everyone and that kinda bugs me. Nice, descent, caring...........There are tons of people like me out there. There may be scenes in my life that stand out to others that help define me to them, but it's no more of less different from any other young male walking round the world at the moment.
This makes me wonder how I can change that legacy with all of these people. And if I go about making this change just for this sole purpose of giving them something more interesting to remember me by am I somehow completely ignoring my present-day life. I know this can get into the more philosophical way of thinking about life, but just a thought I had. It's probably cause I had some moments happen recently that altered how I see people around me on a daily basis. Some things changed for the worse. Others improved my POV on them. And at those funerals I will now say something a lil different about them. So think about that sometimes and go in peace my friends. Legacies will always be changing. It's very fluid. Rabble Rock!
7 comments:
Good post Rich. I always enjoy reading your point of view.
By the way Rich, your cousin is so adorable...
"Maybe not in this manner, but there are countless people I will never see again. This allows me the freedom to say that for some instances in my life I have no consequences to my actions. I can behave as I wish and it will not come back to bite me. How peaceful."
It would be nice if this were true, but the way we meet and treat strangers does have consequences in your life. "What goes around comes around" applies always. Treating someone nice will result in a good result for you as well, even though you may not know it.
I guess what I mean is that positive energy attracts positive energy.
I like your philosophical take on everyday life. Not everyone possesses the ability to examine it is this way.
Your little cousin is a doll!
I do care about the daily people I will never see again simply because I believe in Karma. I want to be the bright spot on someone's day. They could have been having the crappiest day in their life. What if I am that ONE GUY who can bring a smile to the day. Do, I treat everyone in this manner. No, sometimes I simply just don't care. But the majority of time, I try to stay witht his outlook. Good post.
I don't believe there are no consequences to our behavior whether intended or not, it does affect the pool of life. I try to be thoughtful and considerate. I am not always successful, who is, but for example, when I inadvertently cut someone off and they yell or flip me off, I smile and say "sorry". It immediately changes their behavior. Karma baby.
Congrats on your cousin's baby, beautiful!
Ah, legacies, all that stuff is hard to talk about. But I know what you mean, but I do believe in the whole karma thing, if you are cool with people it rubs off on others... but in terms of being remembered, I dunno, I hope the people I was closest to will remember me with joy and happiness. That's what matters to me, and yeah, of course I hope I can do something of use on this earth that will be remembered in some tiny tiny way. Or not so much remembered, but useful for others...
About 25 years ago my wife and I were looking to buy a full size van, an add in the autotrader took us to Long Beach. After seeing the van and deciding that we didn't like it we headed back home, all of a sudden my wife goes "Oh no!", I thought I had run a red light or something, so I asked what't wrong? She pointed to the sidewalk and said "I just saw a bum, walking with his bum wife and his bum little kids" I know it doesn't sound funny but trust me when she said it it was because she said it in Spanish and the terminology she used was a little differt. I started laughing as a reaction to her sentence but she looked at me and told me that it wasn't funny. She really felt bad for those people whom appered to be homeless and pushing a market cart full of their possetions. The moral of the story and probably being one of many we have is that even now once in a while we remember them, and we just saw them once for a couple of seconds. I hope they survived and are OK now but I'll never know.
Anybody that has read my blog knows that I promote family unity and friendship as a top priority, and I too believe in karma.
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