Remnants
Lately, I’ve been thinking about what remains after all our hard work, our love, and our energy runs out. Legacy seems too grand a word for what I mean. I associate legacy with people who endure and influence beyond the scope of a simple life, whether they deserve it or not. People with fame and fortune, people with power. But what remains when books go unpublished or unread? What remains when songs are unfinished and gardens are left untended? Some would say it’s surely the love we gave and the lives we shared that matter most. Our relationships are what endure and carry our memories forward. That’s a comforting idea for me, and it resonates deeply most of the time. But I also wonder about the scraps of our lives. Particularly the creative bits. The stories and songs and poems that were abandoned in one way or another. The sketches we never shared. The projects of one kind or another that never came to fruition. Do they matter at all? Is there any point in work that will not last? T