Sweet legacies
#35: A 100-word story on the sweet, little legacies possible to us all
Sweet legacies
Summers in Delhi were unbearable. But they brought mouth-watering mangoes! One blazing afternoon my family polished off a most delectable batch. My father instructed the gardener to plant one of the seeds by the fence. Soon we moved away.
Years flew. One day, passing that street, my parents decided to visit the old house. The new residents were welcoming. My father pointed out the now fully grown mango tree he’d planted, to my mother. The new residents exclaimed, “Those mangoes! Another reason we love it here…”
My parents laughed.
They’re both gone now — having left numerous sweet mango trees behind.
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reena | 02.23.24
I personally don’t care for the word “legacy” or its attendant pomposity. The idea seems to drive people to make strange trade-offs — choosing fans over friends, holding court over real conversation and playing for status over authentic relationships. Social media has made such “lives on display” not only the norm but the expectation. Many are lost in misplaced illusions of grandeur, with the rest unhappy that they can’t keep up.
But even if we withdraw from that shallowness, we humans are designed to think about what we can and should leave behind?
If I reflect on my own life, the people who (will) remain in my heart long after they’re gone, are those who are/were authentic, present for me and anything but pompous. They focus(ed) on relishing the sweet mangoes of life in genuine relationships while planting humble seeds without announcement or fanfare.
Maybe if we did that not only will our days here come up sweeter, we’ll also leave behind memories, values and inspiration for those that truly matter.
It doesn't matter what you do, …so long as you change something from the way it was before you touched it into something that's like you after you take your hands away. The difference between the man who just cuts lawns and a real gardener is in the touching... The lawn-cutter might just as well not have been there at all; the gardener will be there a lifetime.
― Ray Bradbury, Fahrenheit 451
And of course my all time favorite quote for the years…
To laugh often and much; to win the respect of intelligent people and the affection of children; to earn the appreciation of honest critics and endure the betrayal of false friends; to appreciate the beauty; to find the best in others; to leave the world a bit better, whether by a healthy child, a garden patch Or a redeemed social condition; to know even one life has breathed easier because you have lived. This is to have succeeded!
―Ralph Waldo Emerson
I’d love your thoughts…
A Writer’s People by V.S. Naipaul is one of my favorites and is about how our people are who help form what we write and who we become as writers. No one of us is an island.
Sweet Reena, you have left your share of sweet mangoes.