When I received those paperbacks (copies of my two novels), and when I first held them in my hands, I instantly thought about my favorite quote, “We all die. The goal isn’t to live forever, the goal is to create something that will.” And I said to myself, these books are going to last a long time. The physical objects, the paper, the glue that’s keeping all the words together, won’t last forever. Technically speaking, nothing does.
But all this got me thinking about my legacy. I know I’m young, but fate doesn’t care about these sort of things. So I thought about what I’d like to leave behind.
Am I building something now? Am I the person I’ve wanted to be? Are my dreams coming true? You know, the type of questions one does not like to ask. But I kept asking them, I kept trying to find answers.
I’d like to believe that my stories are going to last for a long, long time. Maybe for as long as the human race itself. But what can you do about this? How can you build a legacy? How can you make sure that people will remember you?
The only question I can think of is this: you have to live your life exactly the way you want to. That’s what true courage is all about: acting without regard to consequences. Or something like that. And do only the things you love to do. There isn’t time for anything else.
We often take time for granted. We believe tomorrow is certain. But it’s not. Sadly, we can never see what the future holds.
I’ve always wanted to be a writer. And in my definition of a writer, it doesn’t matter if you publish paperbacks or e-books, or if you just blog. Being a writer isn’t about genre or style or awards. Being a writer is simply about writing. Finding an audience is important, I give you that, and I am truly grateful for being able to present my thoughts to such a large audience, but I don’t think this is the most important part.
When I sit at my desk and I write, nothing else matters. To me, this simple act brings joy to my heart. And suspended inside the few moments that I spend writing, I’m perfect. I don’t need anything else, I don’t want anything else. There’s nothing to take from those moments, nothing to add or change.
A few moments of perfection, that’s how great things are built. And then, everything that follows, it doesn’t matter. Because you keep on writing. You write when you feel like it, and you write when you don’t. You write when you’re happy, sad, confused, or tired. You write when you have to write, when you feel there are too many words crammed inside your skull, and you write when you don’t feel like it.
That’s why I want to build something great. Because I feel that there’s greatness to be found every time I sit at my desk and write. Because I’m happy when I write. And I want for a small part of that to remain long after I’m gone.
And I keep staring at my books, with my name on them, I keep weighing each and every copy, trying to figure out how long will it be before they turn to dust. But then I remind myself that I feel most alive when I write. And if I keep writing, beautiful things will happen.
Credendo vides, as the Romans would say. By believing one sees.
I believe I can build great things, and this belief will help create the fact, as Steinbeck would say.
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Always so succinctly put. Lovely.
To believe in something, whether it is yourself or your act, shows a great amount of strength and keeps you focused in life. I am happy to read about your passion for your writing, because it gives me the impression, you are passionate about your creativity, which means you are passionate about yourself.
You have just articulated my new found experience writing.
I have just started writing after taking 32 years to raise 9 kids and help run a hobby farm. I always have been a story teller but when i tried to write, I froze. What I managed to force was stilted drivel. But just recently, an icy wall has melted and a surge of words rise up from the depths of my being. I barely know what i am going to write when I start. It is an intuitive, right brained activity where connections, impressions simply fall into place. It is like being swept up in a creative force that has a life of its own. It is a marvelous discovery.
“We all die. The goal isn’t to live forever, the goal is to create something that will.”
Wow. I will never forget this quote! Thank you!
Amen!
Reblogged this on Adventures Above the Aether and commented:
This resonates with me. I see writing as a way to transmit a meaningful message across time, to reach out to others and stimulate the mind and heart to greater things.
Love, love, love, love, LOVE… Thank you, Sir Cristian!! xo
Great post, Christian–you are so right that our time on earth is never guaranteed, no matter our ages. I just received my first box of paperback copies of my book, and like you, I held a couple of them in my hands in wonderment that I had actually accomplished this. Now, it's onward and upward, right? All the best, and keep writing.
I've published five volumes of poetry. I have tried to spread my poems as widely as I can, in the hope that one or two might live on. Two have appeared in other people's anthologies. At 83 I don't think I can do more. And it was wonderful to hold them in my hand when they came from the printng.
I think you put into words what so many people, especially bloggers, feel. Well said.
Some real thoughts there! It's something that everyone wants, I think. And who knows, you may stick around for a long time.
A very elegant and personal essay, Christian. Well done. I am a painter and printmaker and have had these same thoughts – how long will they last? My work is out there in the world, hanging on people's walls and it should last for generations, being made of oil and linen or paper under glass. I admire your determination and attitude toward writing; I have no doubt you will make big steps into the world. Best to you.
Looks like you have an excellent start to a grand legacy! Keep writing!
Amazing how much I relate to you – decades apart and across oceans but a kindred spirit. I totally get what you're writing about tonight and I was just thinking about my legacy recently. I am able to hold my third paperback in my old hands this week, and it brought me tremendous joy. I felt like I was a real writer whether anyone else thinks it or not. Credendo vides – I like that. Thanks. We will lift each other up with our words.
Eloquently stated – I have always heard one should plant a tree, have a child, and write a book as one's legacy.
This reminds me so much of the Doctor Who episodes when they go back in time and meet Charles Dickens and Vincent Van Gogh. Both of them never knew how great they were going to be. Charles wanted to know if his books would last and the doctor replied, "Forever." Van Gogh's art was never appreciated when he was alive. We'll never know the legacy we leave behind…and what you said about us just living life and enjoying it while it last, well, it completely hit close to home. Your thoughts and aspirations were beautifully written. Truly inspiring :)
Thanks!
Wonderful to have such focus and determination so young, Cristian. I have always written but held back for many years because I didn't think I was good enough. Since blogging was invented I have written much more freely and the feedback of strangers tells me that I am better than I dared hope! Blogging also makes it easy to monitor just how much you write and motivates you to write more. Easier then to step up to a book. And thanks to epublishing, books truly are immortal now because they never go out of print. Good luck with your books, Cristian, and may there be many more!
Very well said, and believe me I've been there and thought of the same exact things. I've sat in front of my books, looking at my name and thinking about how, just maybe, it might carry on to the future.
And i have to say your thoughts on what makes a writer a writer are simple yet very profound: a writer writes. As long as the writing brings joy to someone, even if its just the writer alone, is of upmost importance.
I have just finished reading Soldiers of Salamis by Javier Cercas. He also explores being remembered; that as long as there is someone to remember us, we never die, more poetically put, "to whose memories will you cling when you are dead so as to not die completely". The beauty and mystery of being a writer is never to know in whose memories you will linger. I live with these phantoms of my favourite writers in my mind and heart every day and value their friendship and input into my life. Their words remain alive and in the timelessness of eternity our paths continue to cross.
Very wise. I love the weight and texture of my book – writing is a journey x
Bellisimo! That's probably the only word I know in Italian, but I ADORED this post. And finally, after years of always having an excuse not to blog, I have had the courage to begin—no matter what crap comes out in the beginning.
Christian ~ you write words of wisdom!
The joy writing brings you is something to be cherished, and it's great that you've picked up on it so early. I myself have been writing for a few years now (my imagination's had a firm hold on me as long as I can remember, though), but it's only been a year since I truly decided that this is what I want to do with my life. Now to steer away from all these short stories and actually get started on a novel…
Just discovered your blog, Cristian. You have a new fan.
I agree wholeheartedly that writing for writing's sake is quite a goal. There are times when that is all I want to do just for the joy of doing it…but it's not building a legacy unless it actually helps people. I don't want to just write so that people know I was here. I want to make a difference. I don't want to just live the way I want to. I want to live for something that matters. I want to to build a future for my family, for my friends, for the people that come behind me. Don't you? I think you a doing that for the writers in your life. You are helping us, but maybe you don't realize this?
Well said. I do agree and would like to add that a recent radio interview with a clergyman pointed out that tombstones are marked with such descriptions as "Loving Mother, Loving Wife, Father,Son, etc, etc. Not "Writer, Artist, etc so much." In the end our legacy will be who we are/were as human beings, How we loved and lived and treated others. Which "myth" will live the longest- Steve Jobs or Jesus Christ?
I think our Art and Writing can reflect some of that too. Enjoyed the post!
How true and well put. I'm sure that is true with all of us as writers. A favorite way for me to put it is this: To cast away time is to cast away opportunity; When opportunity is not seized, one does not realize momentous occasions in life. Although this an original thought and quote, it is what I keep in mind with my own writing. It is the standard by which I live by, as a writer.
Sometimes I wish there was a button for love this beside like this! Believing you will see – we can't do anything we can't imagine – so true.
Great article. Writing in the horror genre, I've seen many of my peers getting stories published more frequently than myself. However, when I read many of their stories, I seem to quickly forget them. I only get two or three stories published per year but I try to make sure they have a strong impact. I want my readers to think about the stories long after they have read them. That is what I strive for in regards to my legacy.
Beautifully said. I want to leave that legacy.
Lovely post. Says it all really.
Well said. I believe that, just by doing what makes us happy, we elevate not only our own experience of life, but also the positive atmosphere of the world. We may not think that's possible, but I absolutely believe in that cumulative effect.
Excellent!
Three years ago I left a job after thirty-seven years to begin freelance writing. I'm a lifelong distance runner so I wrote a memoir about the marathon. Then I began to blog about running, and now I find I'm not really writing about running, but about life and running is just something that feeds my body and mind. This passion to write is inescapable, it just is. I spent forty minutes on the phone with a publisher yesterday who is going to send me a contract to publish my memoir. You know the routine, publishing is a brutal and unpredictable business, I'll believe it when I'm holding the memoir in my hand and feel the pages and smell the glue. I guess this is a long-winded way of saying I completely agree with you, about the legacy that is.
Just remember that, one day, we have to look back over our life and the things we have done, our achievements and failures – so try not to store up any regrets!
I don't assume my words will live to the end of time but I hope that the effect on other readers; if it helps or is inspiring or uplifting, will raise the collective consciousness in a small way to be happier, more at peace and might leave the world a better place. Mother Teresa said something like 'if you can't feed everyone, feed just one'. And luckily your beautiful words have 'fed' many including me, Cristian. Thank you
Love what you say. Oh so true thus oh so beautiful. My first novel, written 32 yrs. back is in a dusty box at the back of my closet. It had one reader, my husband . I loved how he felt about it and how I felt writing it.
That's my hope, my friend. And I'm sure that together, we will.
Powerful essay, Cristian. Sincere ink.
Writing is one of the only two things that brings me contentment. I hope people will enjoy my writing, but the mere act of writing is sufficient.
absolutely!
re the first part, I realised a long time ago that I don't want to leave behind memories of me that will always be remembered amongst people (eg Danielle the Great), but what I do want to acomplish on earth is 1. studying the bible with people to become followers of Christ, 2. establishing schools in South Africa to raise the next generation to be better than the last (but anonymously) and 3. nope, not children, you thought I was gonna say children~ :-)
re writing – loving it! and LOVE reading your blogs
Our hope is to be remembered; to make our mark upon the world lest we be forgotten. The written word, or perhaps the published word, is the hope of our epitaph. It is our chosen means to an end to create our legacies.
It is unlikely our legacies will ever reach the heights of Dickens, Hemmingway, Vonnegut, Steinbeck, Harper Lee, C.S. Lewis, et al. Our noses are met with this unsettling truth as we walk down the aisles of used bookstores. The moldy scent of yellowed, dusty pages meet our noses and testify to the forgotten, shelved legacies of authors who shared the same hope. Authors we've never knew existed and will never become a part of our reading repertoire.
Therefore, our eyes can never be fixated on the writer's prize. They must be diligently fixated upon our monitors for we write in the moment, letter by letter, word by word, for our own intrinsic worth regardless of recognition. Nevertheless, our diligence may pay off and strike the right chord, at the right moment, among the reading population and we become the next J.K. Rowling.
Keep writing.
I've said it time and again in my comments. Have to say it again – you're truly inspiring. God bless you.
This is very inspiring. I feel the same passion when I sit down to write and the rest of the world seems to disappear for a while. Beautiful. I look forward to reading more.
I love that sentiment–plant a tree, have a child, write a book. Guess I'm going to be planting a tree soon in order to work on my legacy. Thanks for sharing this.
Inspiring words Cristian… a quote that comes to my mind in relation to this post:
“When you were born you were crying and everyone else was smiling. Live your life so at the end, your're the one who is smiling and everyone else is crying.” ― Ralph Waldo Emerson
I want to read your books.
Christian, for such a young person, u have the wisdom of an old soul… You will do fine, brother of Light… And along the way, you will help many, and you won't always know you did… Keep working from the heart…<3
This was a post. I'd love to read your books someday.
I go to seek a great perhaps, which you have found already. Keep writing. Great work indeed.
*great post
Be the writer. Connect with reach one other soul, and you are successful.
Very inspiring, love it.
Rebekka
Great minds think alike Cristian…
Wow Christian, this is fantastic and very inspiring! Thank you.
Good luck with the quarterly magazine launch. A couple of my favorites are now defunct for varying reasons. May yours live well and long!
Once a writer, always a writer.
That was beautiful.
I wonder about the texts and what happens to them. I think about all the books, in physical form, that line my bookshelves, with my honost intent and desire to read them, or re-read them some day. Blogs seem to gather, digitally, by the dozens, now the hundreds. Each seems to have about a three to five day life. But, then, I dust off a book and start reading. A blog, which I wrote a year ago, suddenly gets some views. Hmmmm. Sometimes the legacy goes beyond the orginial and gets transformed into someone else's new version. We recenlty {haven't posted the blog yet :) } saw the musical My Fair Lady, which Lerner and Lowe borrowed from Shaw's Pygmalion, which Shaw borrowed from Ovid's myth, which is pretty similiar to the Hebrew creation story. Each version spoke to the contemporary audience. Then, I see blogs re-blogged, or someone else develops similiar themes. Maybe the ideas live on well beyond how I arranged the words and sentences. Maybe this is the artists (writer's) humand condition. Keep writting.
Oscar
I can relate to your feeling of holding your book in your hand for the first time. It is truly a surreal experience. I just published my first book which is a 365 day devotional called Deeply Rooted and receiving my copy was such an amazing moment – it made the writing experience seem real. Writing is such a great outlet and a wonderful way to share your thoughts with others.
God has gifted you with a wonderful writing gift! thanks for sharing it with us.
What a great post, I really enjoyed reading it.
All we have is the present moment and when we are fully in the now, it's a magical place :)