One of the things that I have been thinking about a great deal lately is how I will be remembered by my children and grandchildren when I am no longer here. Will they be grateful for the things I tried to teach them, for the wisdom I tried to instill in them? Will I be remembered fondly, or will they think I was foolish? This concerns me because of how I remember my own father and grandfather. I want my legacy to be one that makes them proud and the life lessons I tried to teach them to be something that they value and that makes them into better people.
To understand why I am concerned about my legacy, let me tell you a little about myself. When I was a little boy, my parents divorced and for the next several years, I didn’t see my father. So while most boys my age, like my cousins and my friends from school were learning from their fathers to play sports, work around the house and on their cars, I wasn’t. I didn’t hate my father for not being there, but I did sometimes hate that I was missing out on the things that my peers were enjoying. As an adult, it sometimes made me resentful and I swore that I would do all I could to always be there for my son in the ways that my father was not there for me. And even when my father started to exercise his visitation rights, a few weeks in the summer are no substitute for having a full time father.
The other thing that has made me mindful of the legacy I will be leaving behind is the fact that I had a heart attack a few years ago and while it obviously didn’t kill me, it certainly made me aware of my mortality and now that I have a grandchild, I am even more aware that if I am not careful, I could end up missing out on his whole life. When I think of the things that I learned from my maternal grandmother and my paternal grandfather, I know that my life was enriched by them and I want that for my grandchild as well.
To make my legacy a rich one, I had decided to do several things to try to maximize time amount of time I get to be a part of my grandchild’s life and also to give him something that they can keep long after I’m gone for them to remember me by and also that they might one day share with their children. I’m calling this effort Project Legacy and it consists of several goals.
The first of these goals is to work to ensure that I live as long as possible. For me, this means working to get into better shape through exercise and healthy eating choices so not only will I live longer, but I will be healthy enough to not only be there but to be actively there. I want to be the kind of grandparent that can play with my grandkids, not just sit on a bench and watch them play. Children need play and I want to be a part of that.
The second goal is to share my mind with them and I want to accomplish this through writing. I have always been an avid reader and always tried to instill in my kids a love of reading by reading to them when they were too little to read for themselves and by always having lots of books around. Since I also love to write, I have decided that I want to try to write a series of short children’s stories. I can think of no better way to express my love for them than to apply my creative talents to providing them with this gift and hopefully, they can not only enjoy them as children but will be able to pass on my stories to their children as well, even if I’m no longer around.
The final goal is to use this website as a means to record my thoughts on a variety of topics so that my children can get even more insight into how I think, the things that are important to me, and ideas that I want to share with them and with you.