7.01.2009

Readerboards and constant questions

I live across the street from a church. It's one of those churches that utilize the McDonald's style reader boards to try and encourage people to either attend their services or just give people a little something to think about. I won't lie I usually read them since my bedroom perfectly overlooks the church and I laugh at how silly or absurd they are. A couple weeks ago though they had one up there that actually managed to get me thinking. All it said was "how do you want to be remembered?" I read that every day for about 2 weeks before they took it down and pondered that very question over and over again in my head. What about me do I want people to remember? What will I do to insure my legacy? What will people think about when they think of me when I am gone? I asked all these questions and I realized that what I wanted to be remembered as and what I thought I actually would be remembered as were two different things.

How I want to be remembered:
Funny, caring, loving, sincere, friendly, honest, creative, hardworking.

How I think I would be remembered as of right now:
Funny to a point, loud, harsh, brutal, liar, clever, quitter, that dude who twitters too much, sweet when no one is looking.

Now I know that's a lot of my perception and not how people think which I am sure i will get some reassuring comments that I have it all wrong but my question is how can I get my perception of my behavior to better fit what I want it to be? I can start by being nicer to the people that I love. I can try and not be as mean to everyone. I don't need to make others look bad just to make myself feel better. I need to be honest. To everyone. About everything. I need to stop feeling bad about the decisions that I made in the past just because they aren't traditional or what everyone else thinks is my potential. Speaking of that word I hate, I need to start living up to my potential. At work, at church, socially, and personally. After all if all these people that are close to me see so much of it in me it obviously is there and I need to actually realize it might actually be there and I need to stop selling myself short.

2 comments:

Mallory said...

I don't think i would put harsh down, you dont seem like a harsh person to me. I think you needed to add excellent story teller to your list of being remembered as!

Mitch's Mad World said...

Hi Allen,

You are complicated and great. If not now-later.

Give others a chance to be friends or better yet, just be a friend.

I received these sayings from a friend:

When Insults Had Class (no 4-letter words!!)
These glorious insults are from an era when cleverness with words was still a valued commodity:

The exchange between Churchill & Lady Astor - She said, "If you were my husband I'd give you poison," and he said, "If you were my wife, I'd drink it."
A member of Parliament to Disraeli - "Sir, you will either die on the gallows or of some unspeakable disease." "That depends, Sir," said Disraeli, "whether I embrace your policies or your mistress."
"He had delusions of adequacy." - Walter Kerr

"He has all the virtues I dislike and none of the vices I admire." - Winston Churchill

"A modest little person, with much to be modest about." - Winston Churchill

"I have never killed a man, but I have read many obituaries with great pleasure." - Clarence Darrow

"He has never been known to use a word that might send a reader to the dictionary." - William Faulkner (about Ernest Hemingway)

"Poor Faulkner. Does he really think big emotions come from big words?" - Ernest Hemingway (about William Faulkner)

"Thank you for sending me a copy of your book; I'll waste no time reading it." - Moses Hadas

"He can compress the most words into the smallest idea of any man I know." - Abraham Lincoln

"I didn't attend the funeral, but I sent a nice letter saying I approved of it." - Mark Twain

"He has no enemies, but is intensely disliked by his friends." - Oscar Wilde

"I am enclosing two tickets to the first night of my new play; bring a friend.... if you have one." - George Bernard Shaw to Winston Churchill
"Cannot possibly attend first night, will attend second... if there is one." - Winston Churchill, in response.

"I feel so miserable without you; it's almost like having you here." - Stephen Bishop

"He is a self-made man and worships his creator." - John Bright

"I've just learned about his illness. Let's hope it's nothing trivial." - Irvin S. Cobb

"He is not only dull himself, he is the cause of dullness in others." - Samuel Johnson

"He is simply a shiver looking for a spine to run up." - Paul Keating

"There's nothing wrong with you that reincarnation won't cure." - Jack E. Leonard

"He has the attention span of a lightning bolt." - Robert Redford

"They never open their mouths without subtracting from the sum of human knowledge." - Thomas Brackett Reed

“In order to avoid being called a flirt, she always yielded easily." -Charles, Count Talleyrand

"He loves nature in spite of what it did to him." - Forrest Tucker

"Why do you sit there looking like an envelope without any address on it?" - Mark Twain

"His mother should have thrown him away and kept the stork " - Mae West

"Some cause happiness wherever they go; others, whenever they go." - Oscar Wilde

“He uses statistics as a drunken man uses lampposts.. . for support rather than illumination. " - Andrew Lang (1844-1912)

"He has Van Gogh's ear for music." - Billy Wilder

"I've had a perfectly wonderful evening. But this wasn't it." - Groucho Marx

Now you can remember me for my words.

Just a few well thought words can say a lot. Mitchell Sapp 2009.