Conversations For Transformation:
Essays Inspired By The Ideas Of Werner Erhard
Conversations For Transformation
Essays By Laurence Platt
Inspired By The Ideas Of Werner Erhard
And More
Legacy
Sacramento, California, USA
March 31, 2008
This essay,
Legacy,
is the companion piece to
Legacy II.
I was standing leaning forward, hands on my knees, toes dangling over
the edge, on the high diving board squinting down into the water so
impossibly far below.
As soon as I noticed it
inexorably
happening anyway, I stretched my arms open wide, as wide as I possibly
could, wrapping my empty nothing Self like a shimmering cloak around
the entire universe, and dived off, headlong into being, incarnating my
infinite context like a possibility as a human being born
... just ... like ... that ...
It's often said we arrive here with nothing and we'll leave here with
nothing. That's partially true, yet it's also trite enough to risk
missing the whole
what's so
of what really happens.
I've got something to say about this.
What's so
is not that I came here with nothing. It's that I came
here as nothing. And it wasn't until I'd been here
for a while that it slowly dawned on me the legacy which
awaited me here, the inheritance I received when I got here is the same
legacy awaiting everyone. It's the legacy of being human
with which I personally have everything to do, and with which I
personally have nothing to do. It's always personal, and
it's never personal.
In the matter of our legacy, in the matter of us inheriting the
human-ness of being human, there's no choice but to accept it.
There's no choice, either, to refuse it. Accepting it is the subway
token for being here, it's the ticket to ride along the
road of the examined life, it's the tollbooth toll at the onramp to the
highway of living, indeed it's the mandatory visa, the rubber
stamp required for entering in through the gates of
Planet Earth.
And there's no way back out of those gates once you've entered in
either. Or, said another way,
the only way out is
through.
We're born, then we immediately inherit the legacy. We're born to be
personal, but it's not personal, and neither is inherting
it personal. It's both a relief and a surprise to discover life is
never personal and it's always personal. Neither you nor
I created the humanness of being human, the so-called human
condition. Yet we're undeniably born into it. It was here when we
got here. It'll be here long after you and I are gone. It's got nothing
to do with you. Yet it's got everything to do with you. It's got
nothing to do with me. Yet it's got everything to do with me.
As I surrender to this humanness, as I choose to inherit
this legacy, I know for the most part it will cost me my soul. And
that's just for starters. That's just the down payment of the first
installment of the total price I'll eventually pay. The choiceless
choice of accepting it will keep me occupied and distracted, away from
my Self, away from my true nature almost all the time for
almost all my days on
this planet.
Yet the dignity and
privilege
of being here requires I magnanimously accept this legacy. It calls me
to take it on and live it fully, because that - not
my true nature - is ultimately what's going to define my life here as a
human being.
It could be said there's really only one truly original act human
beings can lay claim to. It could be said the only truly original act
human beings can lay claim to is distinguishing the legacy from who we
really are. Indeed, it's in distinguishing the legacy from who we
really are that brings forth who we really are. Even
though it's possible for each and every one of us to do exactly the
same thing which is to distinguish the legacy from who we really are,
even though in this regard we each have the exact same ability as
everyone else,
paradoxically
it's still an act of true originality when any one of us distinguishes
the legacy from who we really are.
Be careful. It doesn't mean anything and it's not significant that, in
all moments under all circumstances, we each have the ability to
originally distinguish the legacy. That's just
what's so
about us human beings. Yet of all the myriads of choices we can make
and of all of legions of actions we can take, it's possibly the only
choice we enable ourselves to make which truly touches, moves, and
inspires us and Life itSelf. It's arguably also the only action we're
capable of taking which really makes a difference.