The lesson, I suppose, is that none of us have much control over how we will be remembered. Every life is an amalgam, and it is impossible to know what moments, what foibles, what charms will come to define us once we're gone. All we can do is live our lives fully, be authentically ourselves and trust that the right things about us, the best and most fitting things, will echo in the memories of us that endure.
Interpretation
We cannot control how we will be remembered, but we can live authentically and fully.
This quote emphasizes the idea that our legacy is shaped by a complex mix of experiences and traits, and it is ultimately out of our control how we are remembered after we pass away. Instead of worrying about our reputation, we should focus on living authentically and fulfilling our potential, trusting that the most genuine aspects of ourselves will leave a lasting impact on others.
In practice
This quote would be suitable for a commencement speech as a reminder to graduates about the importance of authenticity.
My love for the child asleep in the crib, the child's need for me, for my vigilance, had made my life valuable in a way that even the most abundantly offered love, my parents', my brother's, even Tom's, had failed to do. Love was required of me now--to be given, not merely to be sought and returned.
We turned onto the last landing. Going out with this guy, I thought, would involve a lot of silly laughter, some wit--the buzz of his whispered wisecracks in my ear. But there would be as well his willingness to reveal, or more his inability to conceal, that he had been silently rehearsing my name as he climbed the stairs behind me. There would be his willingness to bestow upon me the power to reassure him. He would trust me with his happiness.
Publishing a short story can sometimes feel like shouting into the dark... your words come out, and then nothing... but I don't think that's why I tend to write novels rather than stories.
Everybody ages. Everybody dies. There is no turning back the clock. So the question in life becomes: What are you going to do while you're here
You must make up your mind to the prospect of sustaining a certain measure of pain and trouble in you'r passage through life.
All I'm trying to do is survive and make good out of the dirty, nasty, unbelievable lifestyle that they gave me.
Hip-hop saved my life, man. It's the only thing I've ever been even decent at. I don't know how to do anything else.
If a person has no dreams, they no longer have any reason to live. Dreaming is necessary, although in the dream reality should be glimpsed. For me this is a principle of life.
There simply aren't any grand moments in life, and we surely don't live in those moments. No, we live in the utterly mundane. We exist in the bathrooms, bedrooms, living rooms, and hallways of life. This is where the character of our life is set. This is where we live the life of faith.
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