What does legacy mean?
Maybe it’s the fact that I am rapidly closing in on 50 and having to not only accept my mortality, but having to admit that I’m almost certainly closer to the date of my death than the date of my birth. Either way, I find myself often thinking about the word “legacy” and its application/meaning to my life and how I’ve both lived it to this point in time and how I continue to live it.
I remember reading how most people are remembered for no more than three generations. Certainly, that’s true for my grandparents as my first child was born 16 years after the passing of my last grandparent. After I’m gone, so are the memories of my grandparents through my lineage.
And since my wife and I had our family later in life, it’s certainly possible that our kids will have their family after I’m gone. Could I exist in two generations from now only as a name and a reference in their stories as “my father was______“?
But then I come back around to karate. Recently, I did a research project where I traced my school’s lineage back to Sokon Matsumura Sensei (1809-1899), sensei to Ankō Itosu Sensei. My lineage traces back eight people… Eight generations back.
And therein lies my legacy, or, more accurately, the memory of me. I have no doubt that were my lineage to be anchored by someone not as prominent a figure as Matsumura, or his more famous pupil, that my lineage would likely be overlooked.
We’re all just a point on a historical line
But it is tied to Sokon Matsumura and, as a direct descendant of his karate, I’m now placed in a line of people who will continue to be added. Or, as Jaredd Wilson calls us, “A Tribe Called Martial Artists“.
The student of my student of my student, may one day look at his or her lineage chart and see my name embedded in it. And so I will continue to live in the practice, philosophy, and the style of the students who come after me. A while ago, I wrote about the difference between history and tradition, and how tradition is the continuity of existence. Legacy is merely a further exploration of that continuity and, more precisely, a way to measure our place in the tradition of our art.
So perhaps being a teacher is, in part, vanity exercise or, at least, an attempt at being a longer-term memory but with the understanding that my karate lineage – and my place in it – may be seen and referenced 100 years from now. That is a privilege and an honor.
And a responsibility.
What does the term “Legacy” mean to you? Let me know in the comment section at the bottom!
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