September 24thA Legacy of Little Pieces
- by Brent Musser
Over the last five years I have had the privilege of participating in the Ontario Breeding Bird Atlas. According to the website, “The goal of the Atlas is to map the distribution and abundance of Ontario’s breeding birds.” This valuable information can then be used into the future for conservation. I am one volunteer of many, and have contributed only a small amount of data in a very large project. But together our efforts will produce something of value that will last beyond the span of our lives. As I have been reflecting on my involvement, it is satisfying to know that a little piece of my life will be preserved as long as scientists and conservationists make use of this data. I look forward to seeing the published results and being able to say, “I confirmed that that bird was in that place.”
Lately I have been pondering my legacy. What of lasting significance will I leave behind? Closely associated with the idea of legacy is memory. What will I be remembered for?
An ancient Hebrew voice has recently been introduced to my reflections on legacy: the voice of “the Teacher” from Ecclesiastes. “Perfectly pointless, says the Teacher, perfectly pointless. Everything is pointless” (Ecc. 1:2 CEB). Nothing really changes, nothing is new in the world, meaning is a mirage, because eventually every generation will be replaced by a new one and none of them will be remembered in the end. For this Teacher, the reality of death and the relentless passing of time undermine the lasting significance of everything.
Our legacies are not primarily our great accomplishments, for which people recognize and honour us. Our legacies are formed in every relationship, every action, every step and carried forward by generation after generation.
Sitting with this troubling notion has helped me start to reshape some of my thoughts about legacy. All of us will be remembered a little while, some a little longer than others, but as generations pass we will, each of us, be forgotten. So, what then is left of our legacies?
In the same way that a little piece of my life is preserved in the Ontario Breeding Bird Atlas, we leave little pieces of our lives in the people we love, serve and spend time with, in the organizations we support, in the earth we tread on. And those little pieces mix with the little pieces of others who leave their imprint in each of these people, organizations and places. And all these little pieces get passed through each ensuing generation, being reformed and reshaped until you can’t really tell where one person’s piece begins and another’s ends. Our names are forgotten, but our legacies persist.
Our legacies are not primarily our great accomplishments, for which people recognize and honour us. Our legacies are formed in every relationship, every action, every step and carried forward by generation after generation.
Like the Teacher of Ecclesiastes, we may not be able to peer forward into time and know the specific ways our legacies are transported into the future. The prospect of being forgotten and of our lives being futile may darken our minds. But Jesus’ life and teaching, his death, resurrection and ascension, offer us hope because something new has come and something new is coming. We are invited to live within the divine Spirit, allowing God to shape our steps, our actions and our relationships in love, leaving anonymous legacies that endure and matter in the community God is bringing into being.
-Brent Musser is an ordained MCEC pastor and facilities and environmental stewardship director at Hidden Acres Mennonite Camp