The older I get and the more I pay attention to the world around me, the more I become deeply aware of the significance of the phrase “memento mori”. Yep, this is dark for a first post, huh?
If you’re not familiar, in essence, memento mori means “remember your death”. As a father, legacy is something that has been extremely important to me. Not physical objects, but the skills and values that our children take with them for the rest of their lives. Sure, physical objects are nice too, but that’s something I may write about at a different time.
It’s a pretty common trope on television: mom/dad are dead, child finds a journal and learns from said journal. While I love the idea of a journal I can never seem to pull it off. That is why this website is here. If you made it here and you’re not one of my kids, that’s ok. I hope you read and enjoy. This is mainly for them though.
You see, I recently watched a bible study on Right Now Media with Pastor Matt Chandler, someone I truly admire, and he talked about his battle with cancer. Matt was in the living room playing with his kids. His wife was in the kitchen preparing dinner. She heard a loud crash and her daughter yell “Daddy?” When she came around the corner, he was on the floor having a seizure. It turns out there was a large mass on his brain. He was told that with surgery, chemo and radiation he had a good 2-3 years left. That’s not a lot of years! The kicker was he was healthy, non-smoker, no gradual illness. He was fine and then….he wasn’t.
I started thinking about what I would do in his situation. How I would handle it. What I would say to who…there’s just never enough time left and by the time you realize that there is even less.
So…I guess this is my legacy.