HEART TO HEART LEGACY

 

Mother and Child, Bethlehem, Israel

Perhaps this pandemic year 2020 will be remembered for our common legacy of mortality and a virus more than anything else.  One of the many positive attributes of receiving an electronic newspaper in addition to not braving the elements in my sweats every morning is the videos that are included.  This Saturday morning’s edition included a rather premature video of some of the prominent deceased influencers in 2020 that have caught our attention for their actions that remain here on earth.

I normally review these names because many of the people have been a part of the fabric of my life for this time and place.  And now that I’ve entered into the fourth quarter of life, I find these choices even more interesting because of their qualifications.  And in this electronic age, there are obvious choices in people who have made a name for themselves in the public’s eye for music, athletics, art, acting, politics, etc.

If you’re like me, you catch yourself comparing dates of birth for those departed like Chadwick Boseman, 43, 1976; Mac Davis, 78, 1942; Ruth Bader Ginsburg, 87, 1933, to gauge longevity.  The vast majority of us will not have our legacy shown in these lights, however quickly even these will begin to diminish as with all human beings.

I chanced upon an observation in a Psychology Today post by Robert Enright, Ph.D., that really resonated; “Does legacy count for little? Think of even one time in which one of your parents gave you legitimate love that stayed in your heart. If you can pass that to even one other heart and then it is passed on to another heart, does this count for little?

What will be your legacy?  Do not be concerned if your name is not in lights 200 years from now. Be very concerned that you have the opportunity today to start a pattern of love that goes from heart to heart to heart…even if you and your works are long forgotten… and it can exist apart from anyone ever connecting our love back to us.”

And so, wouldn’t it be wonderful if the legacy of this chaotic year 2020 was not mortality and the human to human transmission of a virus, but the immortality of the love humanity transmitted heart to heart?