Legacy

It seems “legacy” is a buzz word these days.  Many want to leave something behind that others can look to and appreciate.  It does not matter that I cannot appreciate it when I am long gone.  Too bad that all I have achieved can be undone by the next person, or after I am gone.
Starlin’s legacy was denounced by the next U.S.S.R. leader (Khrushchev).   All that time.  All that misery.  All that building.  Undone.  Some legacies are better though.  It seems the best legacies are those that leave a positive where there was a negative.
In Seoul Korea a highway was built over Cheonggye creek.  Someone got rid of the highway and made the creek a people place.  “Creating an environment with clean water and natural habitats was the most significant achievement of the project. Species of fish, birds, and insects have increased significantly as a result of the stream excavation. The stream helps to cool down the temperature on the nearby areas by 3.6 °C on average versus other parts of Seoul. The number of vehicles entering downtown Seoul has decreased by 2.3%, with an increasing number of users of buses (by 1.4%) and subways (by 4.3%: a daily average of 430,000 people) as a result of the demolition of the two heavily used roads. This has a positive influence by improving the atmospheric environment in the region.”
I personally am not anti-development, but sometimes the cost seems too high.  The Thames river has been cleaned up and the fish have returned.  Near our place causeways have replaced creeks and I wonder what has happened to the inhabitants.  There are benefits, but I wonder if we should not consider the best way of doing something rather than the most convenient way.
I know someone that pointed to something as his “legacy.”  It is good and convenient and I personally feel the place better as a result.  While these things are rightly important to us, they are insignificant in the scheme of things.
A song I love contains the words “up from the wasteland.”  The imagery of that does it for me.  It seems that legacies have to do with us improving what we consider a wasteland.  To me though, who I am matters more than what I do.  One though is born of the other.
I see legacies as a part of a battle.  On the one hand it is a losing battle.  No matter how much we improve we do not change.  On the other hand, it is a winning battle.  A song called “letter from the front” resounded in me. “The wars already won.”  Whatever the case the war is to the death.  To me, some legacies mean more than others.