Memories are made of this.
Dec. 6th, 2004 03:41 pmI have been thinking about mortality over the weekend. It's something I said in conversation on Saturday night that really made me think of it - When we're dead, all we are is memories in the minds of others. Some people will remember usd well, and kindly. Others not so.
People tend not to think about their own mortality. Like paying tax, it's sometyhing awful and arbitary that happens and so you try and put it off for as long as possible. However, the line about memories got me thinking about how people are remembered. I think that everyone has the people who they'd like to remember them well - friends, family, members of the superhero community, and so on: but the interesting question is who you'd like to remember you badly. The people who will think ill of you when you're gone.
As we go through life, we're going to meet people who like and dislike us. Some people even dislike me, but then again there are 6 billion people out there so I suppose it's inevitable that there will be a few imbeciles scattered amongst them.
But that's the question I'd like to ask of you all: not who you hope will remember you kindly when you keel over dead, but who you'd hope will remember ill of you. Who will curse at the memory of your name? And will you be glad they do?
People tend not to think about their own mortality. Like paying tax, it's sometyhing awful and arbitary that happens and so you try and put it off for as long as possible. However, the line about memories got me thinking about how people are remembered. I think that everyone has the people who they'd like to remember them well - friends, family, members of the superhero community, and so on: but the interesting question is who you'd like to remember you badly. The people who will think ill of you when you're gone.
As we go through life, we're going to meet people who like and dislike us. Some people even dislike me, but then again there are 6 billion people out there so I suppose it's inevitable that there will be a few imbeciles scattered amongst them.
But that's the question I'd like to ask of you all: not who you hope will remember you kindly when you keel over dead, but who you'd hope will remember ill of you. Who will curse at the memory of your name? And will you be glad they do?
no subject
Date: 2004-12-06 07:56 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-12-06 07:58 am (UTC)or something like that?
no subject
Date: 2004-12-06 08:01 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-12-06 08:04 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-12-06 08:08 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-12-06 08:16 am (UTC)1. Nobody
2. Everybody
no subject
Date: 2004-12-06 08:35 am (UTC)2. All
As in
Date: 2004-12-06 08:45 am (UTC)Re: As in
Date: 2004-12-07 03:22 am (UTC)But it's better to be remembered than not at all.
Re: As in
Date: 2004-12-07 03:24 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-12-06 08:56 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2004-12-06 09:21 am (UTC)http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/4055081.stm
no subject
Date: 2004-12-06 11:25 am (UTC)