REFER TO GREY: Contemplations by Robert Greigos © 2007-2024

There is a difference between young and old. We can see it. Not in the here and now for one single person, but over time. We perceive the change with the aid of memory, memory sometimes assisted by photographs. We compare then with now, and differences become apparent.

We have little control over the changes our bodies go through over the course of our lifetime. We often feel captive upon a runaway train of biological process, processes most of us do not understand. Small wonder the majority of us pray to someone we hope is in charge, and benevolently so.

The difference between young and old is not only specific to the individual upon whom we may focus our attention. It is also apparent in changes any particular person may have effected in the world around them. By their life's actions, they will have created a wake of consequence. Those consequences amount to what we call "legacy".

Interestingly, consequence is something we do have a modicum of control over. Not ultimately unto infinity, but locally, within the realm of our own perceptions. We control whether we share or grab for ourselves. We control whether we respect what others intend or discount their dreams and snatch from them opportunity, resource, and cooperation. We control whether we swallow myth, rumor, and misinformation whole, or take time to question thoroughly, consider what we've learned, and act with informed intent. We control whether others will remember us for the joy, wealth, wonder, and wisdom we may have created, or whether our existences will be scorned, willingly forgotten, or hardly noticed at all.

Regardless of the biology over which you have no control, may the legacy you do have control over be one for which we will all be grateful, and for which you will have few regrets.