Man’s quest for legacy
In a nutshell, it’s the sum total of your life. All the achievements, failures, relationships you’ve had, anything or anyone that made an imprint of your life.
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In a nutshell, it’s the sum total of your life. All the achievements, failures, relationships you’ve had, anything or anyone that made an imprint of your life.
All human beings, consciously or unconsciously, have an innate desire to leave one’s mark in the world. Why? We go through life day after day as if our mortality were a distant abstraction. But when loved ones and friends pass on, we are taken aback and exclaim: Why? And then we shiver at the thought of how and when it will be our turn.
As we age, suffer and come to grips with the vagaries of our vulnerability, the very impermanence of life inevitably raises the question of why we are in this world to begin with.
Philosophers over the ages have advanced their theories ranging from the existentialists’ fatalistic view of the absurdity of life because it has no meaning at all, to the religious’ exalted conclusion that life’s purpose is to have a moral and upright existence as our Creator meant it to be.
Regardless of one’s belief about why we exist, the desire to be remembered, to leave a mark, is a manifestation of man’s desire to have permanence in some form, not to vanish from this existence without a trace.
Through the ages, from the dawn of civilization, from the bricks and mortar of the pyramids of Egypt to the immortal epic of Homer’s Odyssey and the enduring philosophies of Socrates — all are hallmarks of man’s desire to leave a lasting legacy. You might wonder why I am writing a piece on legacy. Philosophy was never my strong suit, but an unexpected request from a family friend specializing in organizational development to give a lecture on the legacy of leadership to the esteemed faculty and directors of a health and medical institute prompted me to start thinking about what legacy is all about and what, if anything, I could possibly pass on.
What is a legacy? In a nutshell, it’s the sum total of your life. All the achievements, failures, relationships you’ve had, anything or anyone that made an imprint on your life. It’s not just your material possessions or the edifices you erected. It’s the values you practiced, the contributions you made, and the memories you created that hopefully will live on beyond your mortal life.
A legacy of leadership carries a much higher degree of responsibility and transcends the ordinary, which is synonymous with evolution, progress, and a higher calling. Leadership magnifies man’s instinct to survive his inevitable mortality and to be remembered.
Leadership shapes communities. Leadership builds institutions. Leadership evolves culture. Leadership uplifts societies.
Examples of the legacies of leadership abound in the annals of the world’s history. Alexander the Great carved empires from Greece to India. Abraham Lincoln dismantled the notion of slavery forever and changed the course of America. Our very own Jose Rizal’s writings sparked a wave of nationalism and a thirst for independence. Mahatma Gandhi embodied non-violence to effect change. Winston Churchill was the face of an embattled Great Britain’s “finest hour” and was the symbol of courage and resilience. Nelson Mandela’s moral courage in his battle against apartheid changed the face of his nation. And of course, Ninoy Aquino’s immortal declaration that “... the Filipino is worth dying for.”
Legacies need not, however, be only the domain of famous figures. There are everyday heroes who are, without much fanfare, able to inspire communities through simple acts of kindness and compassion. Civic organizations such as the Rotary Club of Makati, of which I am a proud member, have tirelessly lived up to Rotary International’s legacy of Service Above Self.
Our club, for the past 60 years, through its selfless members, has year after year embarked on various service missions. Among them are infant feeding missions to stave off mental stunting; venturing into disaster areas to provide food and clothing to stricken communities; trekking denuded areas to plant trees; providing books for elementary children lacking supplies; and of late, providing a gateway for future employment of underprivileged senior high school students through advanced training in Artificial Intelligence.
Unfortunately, there is also the darker side of a legacy that can sear and leave a lasting scar in the memories of a community, even nations. The world has seen the many faces of innocent victims of wars, of genocides, of religious persecutions, and of late, the more insidious crime of corruption.
A legacy of corruption that can insert itself into the very fabric of the nation’s soul, generation after generation, of corrupt leader after corrupt leader, selfishly enriching and gorging themselves on stolen public funds at the expense of the people. The floods that have engulfed us over the past few days are exhibit number one of the legacy of corruption.
So, what legacy would you like to leave behind?
Until next week… OBF!
