Corona Letters - #63 - Legacies

 A few years ago I met with a friend who had just attended a family member's funeral.

"It so sad." she said.

"Yes. So sad." I parroted.

"No.  You don't get it.   It's sad that NO ONE is sad that she died.   She wasn't kind.   She wasn't warm.  She was extremely opinionated.  No one will miss her.  Her own family is relieved she's gone."

"That is sad." I said.

"I don't want to live my life that way." she said. 

We continued to walk in silence

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When we are alive we have little to no control of what others think of us.

When we are dead we have even less.

What is the legacy we will leave this world with?    

What will they say when we are gone?

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There are two major things going on in the world right now.

There is a major pandemic that is killing more and more people every day.

And, there is a major political divide in our country.  A battle between the left and right, liberals and conservatives, democrats and republicans, the enlightened and the deluded (that one has you thinking, doesn't it?)

This polarization is creating rifts with families, friends, and communities unlike anything this country has seen since maybe the civil war.

Who is right?  Who is wrong?  Who is left?  Who is strong?

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Unfortunately, not everyone is going to make it out of this alive.  

Some will be victims of the virus.

Some will be victims of acts of violence.

Some will die as martyrs, and the like-minded will hold them with great reverence.  History books may remember them another way.  

Some will die in nursing homes or hospitals with no loved ones allowed to be by their sides.

Some will die arguing until their very last breath, that the thing they are dying of is not real.

Some will die of heart attacks, appendicitis, asthma or other illnesses that need not be fatal, but with the hospitals so full of covid patients, there isn't the access to care that there should be and people have and will die preventable deaths.

People have died at an alarming rate and will continue to do so.

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There will be people at a funeral looking at a coffin, thinking of the person lying within.

They will take all those thoughts and memories with them when they leave the graveside.  

What will our legacy be?