On Being Forgotten

Last week, a friend read to me something that had been posted on the internet. It was a philosophy class, or something like that, and the professor or instructor or whatever told the students to raise their hands if they could say something about their parents. All the hands were up. They were then asked if they could say something about their grandparents. Still a lot of hands. Great-grandparents. A few hands. Great-great-grandparents. No hands. In four short generations, we will be completely forgotten.

This, of course, got me to thinking, as I have an inexorable fear of being forgotten. I thought, well, now I need to do something fantastic so I will be remembered. But after a little more thought, I realized that, it isn't me that's going to be remembered. It'll be what I did. No one will know anything about me, except that I did this thing. I won't be me, I'll be a fragment of a person who did a single thing.

Controversial example time? I think so. Martin Luther King Junior. Known as the guy who seriously advanced civil rights. Honestly, that's pretty much all I know him for. The good things he did. Did he do everything right for his entire life? Probably not. Did he make mistakes? I'd say so, he's human. But we remember the fraction of him that's helped people, and that did the right thing.

Hitler is another example. Yes, he did horrible, horrible things. But there is a picture floating around on the internet of him, holding the hand of a small girl, walking down a path. It's an unsettling photo because people see Hitler as something human, as opposed to just a killing machine. I'm not justifying anything that happened - what he was responsible for was horrific and terrible and I hope it's something that never happens again. All I'm saying is that again, that's all we know of him. We don't know anything about the Hitler that held that little girl's hand.

I know, my posts usually end with a feel-good take-home message, but I honestly don't see any way around this. All I can really do is keep sharing myself with the internet, and hope that even a tiny fraction of myself is remembered.