Eternity

Nothing is eternal; nothing lasts forever. Everything will one day be buried and forgotten, even you. Four generations from now, will your family remember you? I don’t remember my great-grandfather. I don’t know his name; I don’t know where he is from. I don’t know his jobs or his dreams. I don’t know how he died or how he lived. What makes me think that my fate is any different? I will one day be an empty shell in the old photograph. I will be just another nameless face from a time long ago.
What is eternal? Are the words I shape eternal? If my words are written, will they last forever? No! My words are at the mercy of those who come after me. My words can be degraded, suppressed, changed and forgotten until I don’t know them. If that is so, then what is the point in writing? If my words are lost, do they have no meaning? If no one hears them, is there a reason for their existence? Even if that is true, did I still not say them? Even if they are forgotten, didn’t I still write them; weren’t they still said? Isn’t that enough?
Does power bestow upon you immortality? If I conquer the world, topple empires, destroy buildings and control the lives of ordinary people, will that make your memory everlasting? No, if only it was that simple. Everything will fall, nothing lasts, even the longest empires is not unending. Did the Sun King think that one day his throne would be gone? No, he thought his line was chosen by G-d and their rule was set in stone. Yet, they are gone and his line walks the Earth no more. Is there anything at all to gain from power?
Is love eternal? People say that love lasts forever and that no power is greater than love. I don’t think that is true. I think back of the girl’s I once loved. That love burned like a sun inside my heart. It was an all-consuming fire that warmed and sustained me through all obstacles. Then, one day I woke up and the fire was gone. Were my feelings real, was it all a dream, did I truly love her? How can you love someone one day and not the other? How is that eternal? What happens when you find that someone who completes your soul? You feel such bliss that you would not trade for a wilderness of monkeys. Then reality enters and you realize the finite span of human life as that someone dies. She is gone. She will no longer talk, no longer laugh, cry... or get angry.... What about us... what are WE supposed to do after the one I loved dies? Even if you preserve her memory in you, what happens when you die? Who will remember when you die? Who will remember the laughter, the tears, and the walks in the rain, the tender kisses? No one, no one will remember them. But does it matter if your love is remembered? You love not for others but for yourself. Even if no one remembers, didn’t you still love? Isn’t that enough?
Nothing is eternal; ultimately everything will be forgotten. Your dreams, your thoughts, your actions will one day be lost. No one will remember what you accomplished with your life. In a few generations, every person’s memory is gone. The politicians of long ago, the giants of their age, who remembers them now? However, just because no one remembers your actions, does that make it so they have no meaning? One day all will be forgotten. If your reason for doing an action is to be remembered, than give up now because you will only end in despair. Thomas Jefferson once said, “Do everything as if the world is watching.” I would like to add something to that. “If the world watches you not, do it anyway.” Just because your name disappears, don’t your actions live on? Don’t they shape the world long after your death? Your legacy is the changes made in the hearts and minds of others. Even if you are forgotten, you change the world even after your death. Isn’t that enough?