{"id":2820,"date":"2012-03-31T07:40:32","date_gmt":"2012-03-31T14:40:32","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.hyattmoore.com\/blank-slate\/?p=2820"},"modified":"2012-03-31T07:40:32","modified_gmt":"2012-03-31T14:40:32","slug":"face-it-we-wont-be-remembered","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.hyattmoore.com\/blank-slate\/2012\/03\/31\/face-it-we-wont-be-remembered\/","title":{"rendered":"Face it–We Won’t be Remembered"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a><\/h6>\n

I got an e-mail out of the blue asking if I was related to one Hyatt Moore who had been married late in life to the inquirer’s great-grandmother. She said she’d been doing some family research and happened upon the connection. A quick Internet search and she found me.<\/p>\n

As the number of people on the earth with that name is limited (five that I know of\u2014and all in a line) her research was quickly rewarded. It began an interesting exchange of sparse information and a few old photographs. It had been a second marriage for both of them, and hardly remembered two generations later.<\/p>\n

If the inquirer had waited another generation, she would have received no information at all.<\/p>\n

There is no remembrance of men of old, and even those who are yet to come will not be remembered by those who follow.*<\/strong><\/p>\n

That’s how it is.<\/p>\n

The memory of me and the memory of you will last about two generations and that’s it. Even then, it’ll be only a name and a few facts, and those the mundane ones.<\/p>\n

All the good stuff, about what an interesting person I was, what I thought about, the challenges I overcame, my glorious resume of jobs, the influence, the friends, the books, the travels, my unique tastes, the symbols of various successes and interests and everything else will all be just the stuff of dust. And the same with you.<\/p>\n

My grandfather was a railroad conductor, had seven children, and struggled to make it for a time as a homesteader in the wilds of Wyoming. That’s about all I know.<\/p>\n

About his father, I know nothing.<\/p>\n

Some people can go back farther, and some people make a study of it. But it’s pretty normal that before long, it’s gone.<\/p>\n

. . .<\/p>\n

Remember Yertle the Turtle<\/em> by Dr. Seuss? Yertle wanted to be king of all he saw so he gathered all the turtles he could\u2014first nine, then 5607\u2014and got them all stacked up under him so he could see (and be king of) more. Finally, Mack, the turtle at the bottom broke (actually burped) and all came tumbling down. There is a point, maybe numerous, but mine is that in all those turtles only two are named, Yertle<\/em> and Mack<\/em>.<\/p>\n

There’s me, Yertle<\/em>\u2014the central figure in my own story\u2014and there’s Mack<\/em>, some ancestor way back there generations ago. All the rest are nameless, and only sort of important for bringing me to my place at center stage.<\/p>\n

Sounds a bit ego-centric, but don’t worry\u2014that’ll go too. Soon enough each of us will be one of the nameless turtles teetering in the middle of somebody else’s stack.<\/p>\n

No wonder our Ecclesiastes writing turtle ancestor wrapped it up with, \u201cMeaningless, meaningless.\u201d<\/p>\n

Except at the end, he said: \u201cFear God . . . for He will bring every deed into judgment, large or small . . . **<\/strong><\/p>\n

It’s a comforting thought that at least we’ll be remembered by \u201cSomebody.\u201d<\/p>\n

I’m trusting, by grace, He’ll overlook a lot.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

_______________________<\/p>\n

*Ecc. 1:11
\n**Ecc. 12:13,14<\/p>\n

Next: e-gallery–New paintings and prints.<\/em>\u00a0Coming Tuesday.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

We may be the main character in our own play. But even a good act runs its course and is no longer remembered. Except by one.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[4],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hyattmoore.com\/blank-slate\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2820"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hyattmoore.com\/blank-slate\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hyattmoore.com\/blank-slate\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hyattmoore.com\/blank-slate\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hyattmoore.com\/blank-slate\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2820"}],"version-history":[{"count":36,"href":"https:\/\/www.hyattmoore.com\/blank-slate\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2820\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2885,"href":"https:\/\/www.hyattmoore.com\/blank-slate\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2820\/revisions\/2885"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hyattmoore.com\/blank-slate\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2820"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hyattmoore.com\/blank-slate\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2820"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hyattmoore.com\/blank-slate\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2820"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}