Some people read this blog. I have no idea who they are. Sometimes they let me know. Most often they never tell me, never comment, never like my post. They read or glance at it and move on with their lives. More people never even bother to read it. This includes most of my friends, family and even my wife.
It just so happens that this post, if you are reading it, is post #800. Although it is a great personal accomplishment, not many, if any at all, will acknowledge it and certainly nobody will remember it years or days from now, anymore then I will remember who the cashier was at the store when I bought my groceries recently.
Because it is a big personal accomplishment for me, I decided to publish it publicly on this particular day, October 21, 2025. There are many good reasons why I might have published on this day.
- 1774 – The flag of Taunton, Massachusetts is the first to include the word “Liberty”.
- 1833 – Alfred Nobel, Swedish chemist and engineer, invented dynamite and founded the Nobel Prize was born (died 1896).
- 1879 – Thomas Edison applies for a patent for his design for an incandescent light bulb.
- 1921 – President Warren G. Harding delivers the first speech by a sitting U.S. president against lynching in the Deep South.
- 1940 – The first edition of the Ernest Hemingway novel For Whom the Bell Tolls is published.
- 2005 – Images of the dwarf planet Eris are taken and subsequently used in documenting its discovery.
Those are all good contenders for a good day to post a monumental achievement on. But my choice is something more artistic, cultural and contemporary.
On October 21, 2015, at 4:29pm, Marty McFly entered the 21st century, traveling from his departure point on October 26, 1985. Many die-hard time slackers take this time sensitive shattering event as an excuse to celebrate Back to the Future day. This is alongside National Pumpkin Cheesecake Day and Apple Day. A man named Giorgetto Giugiaro, designed the car that propelled Marty and Doc back and forth through time. He worked for John DeLorean who founded the DeLorean Motor Company. We still remember the car and the movie today. Years from now people will still remember the car because of the movie and good movies stand the test of time such as this film from 1902.
Georges Méliès who made the film, A Trip to the Moon, is not a household name, but film buffs should know who he is. He was featured in the Martin Scorsese film Hugo (2011) which was based on the book The Invention of Hugo Cabret (2007) by Brian Selznick. While George has secured his place in the history books a little more obscure is an actor and music hall singer named Farjaux who appeared in his film as an astronomer. Unknown today are the first people to see this film at Méliès’s Théâtre Robert-Houdin in Paris.
Popular well-known actor Ben Kingsley played George in the film. A little more obscure is an actor named Shaun Aylward who played a street kid in the film. Uknown to most people is the girl who sold someone a popcorn as they went to see the movie when it was first in theaters. I used to work in a movie theater popping popcorn. Many people ate that popcorn never knowing that it was I who popped it. As I sat in the room all day popping popcorn, eating some, I had a boom box. I recorded some movies on cassette and listened to them as I popped. I’m pretty sure one of them was Back to the Future.
A good amount of people will probably continue to watch Back to the Future, eat some popcorn, experience liberty, know about those who win a Nobel prize, turn on a lightbulb, fight racism, read Hemmingway, and observe Eris through satellite photos. People remember the names of those associated with their role as a public figure, a filmmaker, a trailblazer, an inventor, a president, an author and a discoverer. I would like people to remember my writings, but they probably won’t. Most creative people who write stories or blog posts like myself, or created art, like my mother, or music like my friend Jeff Wagner will not be remembered years from now. Our creative works will fade as others have before them.
The Mark Song
by Jeffrey D. Wagner
Pre-Chorus:
You can’t take away how I feel right now
You cannot change how I feel
I know I might seem strange to you
But my love and faith…are for real
Chorus:
Mark my words and read my mind
I saw something in your eyes
Demons flew away from you
On that February night
My friend Dave Patten noticed a change
Even Costello stopped and praised
Marshall became a Christian that day
Yeah, Marshall became a Christian that day
But it doesn’t matter if anyone remembers us in this world as long as someone remembers us in the next world.
Amen, I say to you, wheresoever this gospel shall be preached in the whole world, that also which she hath done, shall be told for a memory of her. -Jesus the Christ in Matthew 26:13 Douay-Rheims Bible
I don’t write for popularity, or money, or glory. I write because I have an opportunity to do so, a platform where I can successfully do it, and a desire and drive to create something worth reading and sharing. Hopefully I will encourage someone, challenge someone, delight someone or enlighten someone with the love of Christ, His church or something good in his creation. If you’re reading this and it inspires a thought, an idea, or an insight please let me in on your pondering. Subscribe to this blog post and lets have a discussion. If you don’t, I’ll just keep on writing. I pray that both of us regardless will be remembered in the life to come by the one who always pays attention to us and never forgets us even when we forget him.
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