Driving back home from work, getting caught up in a slight traffic crawl my mind suddenly popped me a question - how would I want to be remembered if I kicked the bucket (i.e. die)? I have to admit, when the question randomly appeared in my mind, I knew it was very rethorical question. Rethorical question for a rethoric like myself to answer! Perfect! Besides, anyone stuck in a traffic crawl with the cd player blasting is pretty much a rethoric anyway.
As far as I can remember, I did ask a close friend of mine before and he said he would probably remember me as nice, kind, helpful and sincere. That is certainly comforting to know but it didn't seem quite right to me somehow or rather. It felt very general, not specific and simply just not convincing enough.
The easiest way to find out of course is to go around asking people close to me about it but that would also be very weird and I would probably be thought of as being egoistic or being vain - guess it's a no-no. But if I did go running around asking people about it, it would have a made a good music video for the song "You're So Vain....... lalalalalalalalalala".
When I was a kid going to school, my teacher once described me as being cheeky and witty. A few of my university lecturers described me as being driven, sometimes pompus, aggresive in acheiving my goals and sometimes even stubborn as a cow! But is that how I am really going to be remembered? It just doesn't seem quite right to me, like something is missing and those comments just sound so general and on-the-surface, like those often used descriptions that are used for the sake of using.
Quite surprisingly, I found my answer in the most unexpected place. I dropped by a friend's house to visit his parents since it was a while since my friend left for Australia to study. Since I used to go to his house pretty often during my schooldays for tuition, I knew his parents fairly well. Walking into the house I saw the photo of my friend's dog, Bo. Seeing the photo I knew Bo had passed on.
And then, his mom just said, "Aaron loves animals so much, Bo was lucky to be his dog..... he got all the love from Aaron.". And that was it! That was the answer to my question! I realised, there's no need for me to try to be a good friend, boy friend, father, husband or brother. It was more than good enough for anyone to say, "Anyone would be lucky to be Mick's dog."
No need to measure my success in terms of money or valuables, nothing egoistic about it, nothing vain about it. Simply - I am good enough for a dog to love me, and for me to love a dog! No need for any silly comparisons, and not to forget dogs are always sincere, caring and loving. ;)
As far as I can remember, I did ask a close friend of mine before and he said he would probably remember me as nice, kind, helpful and sincere. That is certainly comforting to know but it didn't seem quite right to me somehow or rather. It felt very general, not specific and simply just not convincing enough.
The easiest way to find out of course is to go around asking people close to me about it but that would also be very weird and I would probably be thought of as being egoistic or being vain - guess it's a no-no. But if I did go running around asking people about it, it would have a made a good music video for the song "You're So Vain....... lalalalalalalalalala".
When I was a kid going to school, my teacher once described me as being cheeky and witty. A few of my university lecturers described me as being driven, sometimes pompus, aggresive in acheiving my goals and sometimes even stubborn as a cow! But is that how I am really going to be remembered? It just doesn't seem quite right to me, like something is missing and those comments just sound so general and on-the-surface, like those often used descriptions that are used for the sake of using.
Quite surprisingly, I found my answer in the most unexpected place. I dropped by a friend's house to visit his parents since it was a while since my friend left for Australia to study. Since I used to go to his house pretty often during my schooldays for tuition, I knew his parents fairly well. Walking into the house I saw the photo of my friend's dog, Bo. Seeing the photo I knew Bo had passed on.
And then, his mom just said, "Aaron loves animals so much, Bo was lucky to be his dog..... he got all the love from Aaron.". And that was it! That was the answer to my question! I realised, there's no need for me to try to be a good friend, boy friend, father, husband or brother. It was more than good enough for anyone to say, "Anyone would be lucky to be Mick's dog."
No need to measure my success in terms of money or valuables, nothing egoistic about it, nothing vain about it. Simply - I am good enough for a dog to love me, and for me to love a dog! No need for any silly comparisons, and not to forget dogs are always sincere, caring and loving. ;)
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