Mark left by a king
One of my favourite poems is the one entitled Ozymandias by Percy Bysshe Shelley. It illustrates the futility of making your mark with the wrong things. The declaration by King Ozymandias in his hey days is so ironical when we compare it with the current reality. The poet well exemplifies the reason for this by contrasting his pompous declaration in the past with what is visible in the present.
The pathos of the empty vastness and the poignancy of the observation Nothing beside remains is telling. Shelley poetically portrays the endless sands marking with finality the futility of perceived grandiosity and assumed greatness. The preservation of the true nature of mankind mocking the tyrant is displayed in a subtle but lasting way!
No other writing sketches well the fickleness of trying to leave a mark.
No evidence describes better the vanity of doing something to inspire envy in the hearts of people fortunate enough to view a glory.
No amount of power or wealth seems to be able to leave an impact on history in spite of efforts.
No way to extend remembrance of existence in time and space even when possessing impressive grandeur.
Mark that we do leave
We all do want to leave our mark in this world, in one way or another. People endow grants and prizes, carve their names and faces on rock and stone. They work with tree and wood or paint and brush to create impression. We want to not only be remembered, but also make a dent on the fabric of this life to show our presence.
How do we ensure that we do not end up like Ozymandias? He left no trace of his being. Even the very monument he created to preserve his place in time failed.
What we strive to accomplish with the help of ambition, greed and selfishness are all swept away by the passage of time, worn out by the winds of change that are inevitable. What we pay attention to, give preference for, run after, slog for and pour ourselves out for, all become meaningless or redundant in the long run. What we value and pursue, giving our whole being to attaining, soon passes away into oblivion and forgetfulness.
King Solomon the Wise, at the pinnacle of his glory, did correctly declare: Yet when I surveyed all that my hands had done and what I had toiled to achieve, everything was meaningless, a chasing after the wind; nothing was gained under the sun.
Mark in history
If this is all there is to life, what then is the use of work, toil, labor, striving and forbearance? We all do want to be held in memory, remembered and not forgotten. How can we ensure perpetuity of existence and linger long in the minds of others? What is it that will help us etch our brand firmly on life and people?
As people, we are the best of creation, made to be eternal and everlasting. We are endowed and blessed with the unique trait to transcend humanness and evanescence to godlikeness and permanence. An innate need is within us to set in concrete terms and leave behind the mark that once existed.
What is it therefore that helps us leave a fingerprint or footprint in time and space? What is it cannot be erased or eroded away, giving expression to a need that throbs within us?
Mark of life
Life in general and all living things in particular is perpetuated by the proliferation and multiplication of their kind. The Creator has bestowed the ability to procreate within the body of every living kind, be it plant, animal or human. Each species on earth embodies a seed, which when planted in the right ground, brings forth fruit after its kind.
Thus do all living things leave behind a generation that preserves its kind and type on earth.
Reproduction is the greatest blessing endowed on all living beings on earth. It ensures that our kind has existential continuity!
Monuments may decay and die;
Memories fade and flee;
Moths and insects erode and destroy;
Thieves steal and vandalize;
But a generation cannot be erased,
Nor a people totally annihilated.
Mark that remains
That’s the mark we can create or help establish. That’s the impression we can leave behind.
A progeny that will replicate and remember us;
A posterity that will carry on our name;
A people who will be living miniatures of ourselves,
Establishing and marking our past in their making of the present,
And impacting the future through their own.
A family and a people, relationships a networks or webs of relationships will leave a mark. The sands of time or the winds of change or the vagaries of fortune cannot destroy or erase this mark.
King Ozymandias would have done well to leave behind a host of people. Or his own sons and daughters to continue the good work he had done in his lifetime.
That is, if he had done good at all!
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