When asked what a man ought to do before he dies, José Martí, a Cuban revolutionary and poet, reportedly answered: Plant a tree, have a child and write a book. Behind this answer, of course, is the idea of leaving behind a legacy – a legacy that will endure even after our earthly life. In other words, it shows how to be immortalized after we are long gone from the face of the earth.
There are many other recourses to immortality. For example, one can be remembered in the Church by living an extraordinary saintly life. One can also be immortalized in history by doing something heroic or being a great leader. Or one can be immortalized in infamy by doing the opposite – by being evil like Hitler or Stalin or Pol Pot. But the majority of us normal/average person cannot do such things so other choices like the one suggested by José Martí that we must have becomes more viable option – un árbol, un hijo y un libro.
Un árbol. Trees can outlive us. We have seen or climbed many trees that are centuries old. One cannot help but be amazed at trees like the giant redwood trees in California that are thousand years old. So if one wants to leave a mark in this world, one can always plant a tree. It’s easy plus one contributes to the preservation of the environment. In Japan, they have a tradition of planting a tree at a birth of a child so that there is a special connection between the tree and a child as they both grow. In Jerusalem, there is a place in the holocaust memorial (Yad Vashem) honoring the “Righteous among the Nations.” These are for the non-Jews (like Oskar Schindler) who saved Jews during the Second World War at great personal risk. They are remembered by planting a tree with their name at the Garden of the Righteous. Personally, I have planted several trees. Many of which I was required to do as a school project. But seeing them now grow tall (and some bearing fruits), I get a sense of accomplishment. Yes, only God can make a tree but it’s a nice feeling to be God’s hands in planting those trees.
Un hijo. For obvious reason (being a priest), I cannot and will not accomplish this option. Interestingly, in history, we have the Persian Immortals which is an army composed of 10,000 elite forces. They are so called because for every member who dies, he was immediately replaced by a relative or kin to maintain their number. So seemingly it is a group that cannot perish that is until they were decimated by Alexander the Great and his army. But it is true that one can live on in one’s children. Sure, there will be physical resemblances between a parent and a child but parents also pass along their character. The goodness or kindness of a parent will pass on to his/her child. People will see a good person and the first thing they deduce is that he/she must have good parents even if they do not know the parents personally or that they have been dead for a quite a while. Abraham was a father of a nation. But he is also remembered as the model of faith who is rewarded by having as one of his descendents the promised Messiah.
Un libro. The library is full of dead people. Dead people like Plato and Socrates, Augustine, Thomas Aquinas, Descartes, Hegel, Kant and Wittgenstein. But their names that are immortalized by the books they wrote. Through the pages of their books, they speak, they breathe, they argue, they live. They are giants on whose shoulders we stand to reach new heights in our knowledge and ultimately in our evolution as better human beings. In writing a book, one lives on in the pages he/she wrote. Yet but this must not be the sole motive in writing. One writes in order to contribute for the betterment of humanity. As such, one is remembered, one is immortalized for this contribution. This is much better than just having a name marking one’s grave.
A tree, a child and a book. Hopefully, I can accomplish two out of three.
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