Lives of great men all remind us
We can make our lives sublime
And, departing, leave behind us
Footprints on the sands of time
- Longfellow
That said, what does an ordinary human being like me do to leave the footprints on the sands of time?
One, who, for whatever reason, did not make it to the book of Great Men?
Give up and fade into nothingness?
I wouldn’t, and here is my reason..
Ten / Twenty / Thirty years from now, when your grandson sits on your lap and asks you, grandpa what did you do in 2009, you can’t tell him I led a happy satisfied life, created some wealth for you to enjoy and am now waiting to die a peaceful man. That would be a good answer but not a good enough answer that would leave foot prints on the sands of time.
It’s not enough to be happy – it’s important to make some sort of difference to something, to someone, at some point of time, a difference that will not die into nothingness along with you. A contribution that will give you no reward in your life time, but could serve as an inspiration for the lives that you leave behind.
But is leaving footprints on sands of life so simple as walking on a beach on a nice breezy day enjoying the music on your walkman? I guess it’s far from that. But I won’t cook you through a long speech on how roughing it out is the only way to dyeing a hero. It’s not. But here is a rather idiomatic way of putting it.
“You can’t leave footprints on the sands of time, unless you walk barefoot on sand no matter how burning hot the sand is !
Simple it sounds but simple it is not! Blisters on your soul will heal soon but the footprints will be there for ever.
I leave here and seek your comments on what you think this means?
