Lessons from the "L" -- Everyone wants to be remembered

I was riding on the "L" from Chicago back to Cicero, just taking photographs and talking to my mom in between. There was a guy who boarded the "L" and from the get go he kinda seemed out of it; maybe it wasn't drugs, but maybe from actions to follow it was because he wanted to be remembered.

I say this because it wasn't too long from the time he boarded the train that he busted out a paint marker and started doing his tag (what us graffiti artists call our signature/etc. to let others know about us, an "I was here....ever so briefly" message).
It was a cool design, I'll give ya that (tho I'm in support of graffiti in legal forms only), but still he defaced property that wasn't his and I bet if he was caught there'd be a lot of money and paperwork to be filled out...anyway, whatever the true reason behind his reason to tag then and there I will never know, but the basis of tagging at times -- to be remembered -- makes a lot of sense to me.

Some of us will have an "original idea" (John Forbes Nash anyone?) in which we do that thing that changes life as we know it and we get acknowledge for it long past our days; Alexander Graham Bell with the Telephone, Henry Ford with a car that was built off an assembly line, Marie Curie discovered Radium etc al... These men and women of old and new did something and they were remembered.

But what about us who don't come up with an original idea? What about us who live the life of a 9-5er, a punch-in and punch-out live-for-the-weekend kinda life? What about them...what about us?
For us it is to do what we can with the time God has provided for us, even if you don't believe you truly can't say "I will live forever!" in a loud and proud voice, because it is not true, our days are limited. It is about taking the time we're given and using it wisely, because once this time you and I have is gone, it's G-O-N-E, no money can buy one more minute of life.

For me personally, it is the way I live out my life to God's glory though times I stumble and the people I invest time in. The showing-up-when-it's-not-in-traditional-parameters moments, the 'I beat the vicious cycle that has cost my family dearly for the past 4-5 generations', the 'I was there for my wife and kids' -- that is how I want to be remembered, and I'm okay with that!

But sometimes we don't see it that way, we're in the now and we're looking up but we're not necessarily looking forward. We can plan all we want, but God ultimately knows how it is all going to unfold ("For the plans I have for you" Remember?) and His will be done in all things.
So look for ways to be remembered, (notice that I said BE over DO things, yeah that was intentional *wink*) While you go through these great journeys that equals YOUR life, remember that everyone likes to be remembered, everyone counts, so do what you can to make your life and others count!

[n][v]