Our legacy as we made it

One time, I was driving on my way to work and it suddenly dawned upon me that as a young man trying to live each day, I have been bombarded with thoughts, many and varied thoughts of what will it take to build on my legacy and how can it also affect those whom I have constantly been working, both our staffs in the office and our students as well their parents. This reckoning and nagging question has been such of a weight upon my shoulders that I have to make my own instant “how-to” as to how to build a lasting legacy that is both reflective and up-front.


On this context, I shall endeavour to discuss with you on our capacity and ability to lend a hand. As I have been saying our legacy is spelled with a capital L which means we have to exert extra effort to lend a hand, in all and whatever capacity we can. We have to help those whom we have been able to each day. People around us need us for varied and important reasons. Mostly, when one assesses the kinds and quality of those that they need from us, it is never on the money-thing. It is more on our presence and how we can make a difference in their lives by just being there and in this, I infer on our capacity to lend an ear and time. The most precious resource of any human being is time. An hour we give to a friend in distress does not cost more than earning hundreds and thousands working on for that special hour and that is magnanimity and generosity rolled into one. When we are in a friend’s home when they are in the midst of trouble, on a death of a loved one or during their financial distress and lend our time to listen to them and help them find solution is more important than earning an income for us alone. It’s what makes our relationship with our friends, family, associates and neighbours stronger, so it’s never been money.


Second, we have to have the capacity to love more. Loving unconditionally is something one cannot easily give. Especially on platonic relationships. We love because we expect some love to be given to us in return. If that should be, then it is not love. Loving unconditionally is something more meaningful, deeper, greater and unselfish. For instance, a child leaving a home and suddenly returns to serve their parents when they are at the twilight of their greying years, that is unconditional love for a child normally forgets to care back for their parents whenever they are also grown-ups, busying with life and how to make ends meet. Another case is on our capacity to genuinely care and love for someone important in our lives. Conventional definition of love is exclusively between married couples or secured sweethears but love is more than that. It’s more than love that is exclusive because we have to tenderly care for our neighbours who have lost a son or daughter in a war somewhere. We have to feel their pain and their hopes for life and if we think loving is exclusive then the next uncaring words will be “I care less” or “it’s not my problem to solve”. Loving and caring are two important acts of kindness that should be freely given to those whom we serve and even to a battered nation. We have to love more to give more of our time, our skills, our ability and our commitment.


Also, by building on our legacy, we have to lead the way. Leading is too complex of a system to adopt. Mostly, we are afraid to lead the way; in fact, we go usually to a well-established norm, clean roads, even preferred paved ones than those gravel and dirt. The essence of the relevance of the roads in the countryside that is not concrete and not with all the amenities that we have like over-pass or the flyover is its uncanny ability to lead us to nowhere. Actually, all roads in the jungle or forest does lead to nowhere if you do not have the compass, sheer determination and our will to survive but if you have the courage to lead the way, you make ordinary pebbles and stones into important milestones in your life by being the first to trod on a path less or mostly, not even travelled. We have to lead the way no matter how strong the undercurrent against change is. We have to lead the way to make a difference, after all, when we are to be judge, we will be judge not in accordance to our riches but in accordance to what we have made for others. By leading the way, we do not enrich ourselves; in fact we placed ourselves in harm’s way just so that others may pass our trail behind us and also reach safely where we arrived.


The moment we build on our legacy we have to be reminded of our own human limitations. We may care but we have to also temper it against too much dependence and wanton idleness. We may also love unconditionally but we also have to temper it against becoming a safe refuge for childish excuses and potentially, of abuses. We may lead but we have to also temper it against the temptations to provide the wrong direction or to lead those following us in astray. We may have it all, but our legacy is one that will secure our place in history. Remember, no rich man is ever remembered for their riches but are honoured and immortalized by their capacity to build on a strong legacy that benefitted not only them alone but also those whom they care so much and whom they have been affiliated with.