Legacy.

According to Webster’s dictionary, it is “money or property left to someone by a will” or “anything handed down as from an ancestor.” Neither of these definitions fully encompass the word, though. They’re focused on material goods, and I think it goes well beyond the physical. A legacy is more about the influence someone leaves on others after they have died (or moved on to other things, perhaps).

Which makes the writing prompt for a writers group I attend—“What is my legacy?”—difficult for me to answer since I’m still amongst the living. I don’t know when I will die or what I will do between now and then. I could perish today or fifty years from now. My legacy would look much different, I think, depending on the timing.

When I was in college, a professor gave my classmates and I the assignment of writing our own obituary. It was his way of getting them to think about goal-setting, but it could also be said he wanted them to think about their legacies. I wrote mine assuming I’d live to be 100 and mentioned things like how many kids I had and the number of books I’d published. But it was wholly hypothetical, a “wish list,” if you will. None of it is guaranteed. But then again, we aren’t guaranteed anything in life.

All of that to say, I don’t know what my legacy will be. I don’t know if it will be in money, property, and/or influence. Proverbs 13:22a says, “A good man leaves an inheritance for his children’s children.” That, I think, speaks of legacy in the best and broadest sense. A man can leave material things through his goodness. An evil man can accumulate wealth. We know this all too well. But in all likelihood, he probably won’t share it let alone have anyone to leave it to. A good man, though, knows he can’t take his property with him, so he leaves it to the next generation so that they may use it. I’ve heard many stories of people who were struggling financially and were saved by an unexpected inheritance they received from a recently deceased relative. That thoughtfulness and kindness will be remembered far more than the money that was given. Indeed, the money disappeared quickly, but the freedom it allowed, if the inheritor was wise, lasted for many years. It may have even inspired the inheritor to do the same when he dies, continuing the cycle from generation to generation.

That is what I want my legacy to be. Whether or not I have much wealth give to others at my death, I want those who remember me to see me as an inspiration. That I would be an example of a life well-lived. A life that, through kindness, continues on even after death.

Indeed, it may be the closest thing to immortality a human being can achieve.