Immortality, Creat A Legacy
I am having a huge internal struggle. It's 2014 and I am 67 years old and know I don’t have a full lifetime ahead. Actually I do have the remainder of my full lifetime ahead and that is the point. I want to finish the time remaining doing what I absolutely enjoy. If I don’t have to deal with corporate politics forever, I am not going to continue doing it.
My passion is to work at creating beautiful and lasting objects that will be my legacy I leave behind. I certainly don’t get that with my daily business activities. I want to be working full time on creative projects that leave hard evidence that “I created this!”
I am not at all remorseful for how I have already spent my life. It’s been a great ride. I have perhaps already done 10X what many people in this world consider a good life experience, simply because of where on earth I was created. What I have to do now is carefully manage the future and spend the time wisely doing what I can enjoy the most. I want to be creative and produce tangible pyramids in the deserts of time. I want to leave lasting markers that I passed this way in life. Perhaps a wonder that says, someone put effort in creating this reminder of human existence.
I want to enjoy what I create in my time and know it will survive because of some intrinsic value after I am gone. Human life is not immortal and I expect my name to be forgotten. But items we have today that continue to live forever (become immortal) are highly valued objects created by the artisans from the past.
I am not creating or selling art just for monetary gain. Profit is necessary and I don’t pretend to be altruistic about not making money for the effort and material. That is if I sell it. A real art legacy needs to be loved, enjoyed and displayed, not stored away from sight as a monetary investment.
I have an arrowhead collection (on display) that my grandfather gathered from the farm fields of Ohio. I was always told as a kid they were old, but now I know they could be thousands of years old. Not made by near history woodland Indians but perhaps early stone and ice age hunters.
Not made for art in their day, they are now a form of art. They are a reminder that a human made those points perhaps a millennia ago. I can still feel that human life and existence as I touch or just view them. That is a real legacy from the past.
I cherish legacy items both my grandfathers created and gave to me. My dad did not leave a tangible creative art legacy. Not everyone enjoys that activity and I understand. He was creative but not with a purpose of leaving a timeless reminder behind. Mom tried in her way with some craft kits and knitting, but not anything lasting that said, “This is a part of me... value it forever.” However, they did create my brother and I...
Rocks last forever. I have saved rocks that I thought were interesting and probably billions of years old. God is the artist. Metal does a pretty good job of lasting too, especially if it has been touched by the hand and spirit of a creative human.
I think I am on a good path. I just need to spend the time.