Lasting Legacy

"It is a wise man who plants a tree under the shade of which he knows he will never sit." -- Unknown

I came across the above quote in an article published years ago by ESPN magazine. I've tried to hunt down its origins, but I've only found non-authoritative sources suggesting that it comes from a Greek proverb.

Anyhow. Lately, I've been lamenting just how rare this idea seems to have become. Sure, we hear talk of legacy, but nearly always the focus is on the one leaving it (to their glory), rather than the thing itself and those who would be its true beneficiaries. We don't seem to plan or build for the future so much as we strive and scheme for ourselves in the now. As an individual, a family, a neighborhood, a community, a country, a world: it's all about the now. This lament has led me to the following observations:

• For all our progress, for all our capability and technological prowess and prosperity, yet in truth we are spinning our wheels, propelling ourselves not forward but downward, further encasing ourselves in the muck - entrenched, entrapped, hopelessly mired in that which we have wrought.

• Victory 'by any means necessary' is never 'just', nor will its reward ever be 'justice'. The society or tribe that places winning over the rule of law, moral or legal, is no lover of justice, but rather the unwitting concubine of chaos.

• There are no rules, except those by which we agree to play. Where there is no such agreement, no rule stands; only chaos and tyranny.

Undoubtedly, these are debatable, and in some extreme contexts perhaps even refuted. Sometimes, it is hard to hold the defeatist impulse at bay ("everything is meaningless", so to speak). I frequently have to will myself to remember that all is not lost, though it seems we are losing. And even if we are losing, to believe we might yet gain. The cost will be great, but hope, and the thing hoped for, is greater.

It comes back to a sacrificial legacy, looking beyond the now (without neglecting it) to a future unwritten. What values, what faith, what freedom, what ideals am I passing down to my children and to those within my circle? What can I bequeath, figuratively and literally, to the generations that come, and should I even care? (Yes, I should). Why? Because the universe tends toward disorder, and it takes focused, controlled energy to counter that disorder. It does not matter whether that universe is an individual, a family, a neighborhood, a community, a country, a world. We can embrace defeatism, or we can plant the proverbial seeds, not so much for ourselves, but for our progeny.

In the end, I realize there are few things I can truly do, and even fewer that I can control. Best to do what I can, and leave that which I cannot to God. Perhaps, in the process the seed will take on a life that bears fruit in its season, and maybe, just maybe, makes a lasting difference (John 15:16).

On the eve of a New Year, sobering thoughts. And the realization that something needs to change, if only in me.