As I get older I’m being forced to acknowledge that my physical body is not accepting my mental premise that I’m pretty much the same as I was when I was 18 years old.<\/p>\n
I’m forced to rationalize more things to myself.<\/p>\n
I tell myself I’m wiser though strangely slower to learn some new things.\u00a0 I have a slower metabolism while at the same time recalling the days I could eat anything and everything that passed within reach of my hands and mouth and suffer no ill consequences aside from occasional indigestion.\u00a0 I still have hair that hasn’t gone gray (yet), but either my forehead is getting taller or (*gasp*) my hairline might be receding.\u00a0 I can still play a good game of volleyball and jump pretty well, but I seem to walk a bit funny the next day and getting out of bed my ankles or perhaps my knees seem oddly pained.\u00a0 Oh, and I have full-grown kids, near adults where before that I used to have children then infants then … well, more intent then opportunity to explore the joys of the opposite sex.<\/p>\n
All this has caused me to start to wrap my head around the fact that, to use a golf metaphor, which probably firmly places me with my elders, statistically I seem to be on the back nine of my life.\u00a0 More life behind me than I likely have ahead of me.<\/p>\n
The time I have ahead of me will probably be marked more by the passing of my ability to do things I’ve taken for granted like playing volleyball without pain, jumping high without warming up, learning quickly, staying up till 2am programming something interesting, eating spicy foods and not suffering the punishments of my digestive tract.<\/p>\n
Instead, I’m learning of the joys of Tums, ibuprofen and the reality that creating muscle mass becomes more difficult on the back nine of this course.<\/p>\n
What else?\u00a0 Oh, yeah.\u00a0 I seem to forget things more easily.\u00a0 Names, things that I remembered five minutes before, what brought me in to the room I’m standing in while I try to reconstruct the last five minutes of thoughts to see what drew me here.<\/p>\n
At the same time, I’m certainly thankful for where I am now.\u00a0 I’m healthy, happy and have purpose.\u00a0 I am loved and I love.\u00a0 So, all in all, not a bad deal.<\/p>\n
This thought process also had me thinking about immortality.<\/p>\n
Not the living forever part, though if I could choose to do that as my 25 year old self and still know what I know that might have some appeal. But, that’s really nothing more than a fun way to wile away a bit of time, like thinking about what you’d do if you won that $200M powerball lottery.<\/p>\n
Failing science coming in the next 40 years and figuring out how to clone my body and create a 25-year old version of me that I can download in to, I’m left thinking about other demonstrable notions of immortality.<\/p>\n
Before I go on, I want to make clear that I’m not even going to touch the spiritual part of this discussion.\u00a0 That’s not something I can prove or disprove.\u00a0 It’s a matter of faith and that’s a different discussion.<\/p>\n
For the purposes of this discussion, let’s define terms.\u00a0 The dictionary defines immortality thusly: “the quality or state of being immortal: a:<\/strong> unending existence b:<\/strong> lasting fame”.<\/p>\n I’m going to define it a bit differently and talk about immortality in the sense of what we leave behind after we are gone from this world.\u00a0 Even if it’s not forever, immortality is what persists after we are gone.<\/p>\n With that in mind, I think there are three demonstrable forms of immortality that are worth thinking about.<\/p>\n They are: our children, the things we make and our acts.<\/p>\n Our Children<\/strong><\/p>\n Our children are our most direct “product” in terms of literally leaving something of ourselves to persist and continue in the world.\u00a0 But, the same applies for adopted children since the impact a parent has on the child in terms of day-to-day interactions is at least as critical as the genetic component.\u00a0 It’s not Nature versus Nurture.\u00a0 It’s Nature plus Nurture.<\/p>\n We don’t get to pick which of our natural traits we get to pass on to our children, so there’s certainly a somewhat random melange there.\u00a0 They will likely receive both the worst and the best of us.<\/p>\n One of our main added values is in trying to help our children do better with what we’ve given them than we may have done ourselves.<\/p>\n Our children will grow up and become independent individuals that carry the legacy of our genetics as well as the everything we’ve tried to be as people and parents.\u00a0 Hopefully the net result of that is more positive than negative.<\/p>\n Scientists can, in some cases, trace the genetic drift of certain chromosomes which allows them to track characteristics back thousands of years to a time and place.<\/p>\n That’s certainly a certain kind of immortality.\u00a0 Someone was born with a mutation for red hair (likely multiple someones) and the characteristic persists today.\u00a0 Perhaps some characteristic of my genetic profile will persist hundreds or more years in to the future, albeit mixed with whatever comes in from elsewhere in future generations.<\/p>\n So, we see that while our children inherit (some might say suffer) the largest piece of our genetic legacy, that continues, albeit diluted, in to later generations.<\/p>\n Similarly, what we teach them about how to be in the world, right and wrong, how to handle disappointment, how to work hard, what’s truly important (to us).\u00a0 These, too, will persist in some form.<\/p>\n The difference is that later generations will largely be a random mix of genetic tendencies, but our children will consciously choose what and who to be.\u00a0 Or not to be.<\/p>\n We’re not doing genetic engineering of our offspring (yet), but generations have partaken in values engineering or behavioral engineering as we choose what to take from our parents and perpetuate in our own lives.<\/p>\n In the end, this form of immortality is one of the most direct ways to influence the world we leave behind.\u00a0 But it’s certainly not the only form.<\/p>\n Things We Make<\/strong><\/p>\n There have always been people who created art in various forms, be it painting, poetry, music or any other form that has existed through history.<\/p>\n We know who painted the Mona Lisa, we know the Eiffel Tower was named after the guy who created it, most of us can probably quote a least a bit of poetry and hopefully the author, or a bit of Shakespeare or a few bars of a classic piece of music and the composer.<\/p>\n This is the most recognized form of immortality in the form of the Things We Make.<\/p>\n Will they persist forever?\u00a0 No, but they will certainly last long after the individual is gone.<\/p>\n But, you might say, everyone can’t be a DaVinci, Michaelangelo, Shakespeare or Mozart!<\/p>\n And, of course, you’d be right.<\/p>\n So, what, I would probably reply.\u00a0 Maybe you won’t create the next Eiffel Tower, but that doesn’t stop us from creating something<\/em> that can live on past our time.<\/p>\n I have a couple pieces of wooden furniture and toys created by my step-Grandfather, Pappy.\u00a0 Each has a small brand on the bottom of them that says “Hand crafted by Pappy”.<\/p>\n When those pass on to my children or they give it to their children (one of them is a small stool shaped like a turtle with a cushion on the top), my kids will know that this came from Pappy.\u00a0 They may not have known him (he passed away before they were very old), but I will get the chance to tell them the story of how the stool came to be and how much Pappy loved making things for people.\u00a0 This is a form of immortality.\u00a0 He will live on in the things he made.\u00a0 Are they the Eiffel Tower?\u00a0 No, but watching my son sit on the turtle stool while learning to tie his shoes is a memory that is far more real to me and touches me deeper than when I stood in front of the Eiffel Tower.\u00a0 Is it impressive?\u00a0 Sure.\u00a0 But it lacks an emotional component that that little stool will always have.\u00a0 And that emotional connection will hopefully grow as my son passes that little stool down to his kids and they make their own stories and create their own connections to that piece of wood and stuffing.<\/p>\n Thanks for that, Pappy.<\/p>\n There’s been a movement afoot that I’ve noticed in last few years.\u00a0 People are Making more things.\u00a0 Average people.\u00a0 They’re learning skills in wood working, crafting, electronics.\u00a0 They’re taking things that other have built and twisting them in to new and amazing things.<\/p>\n