ABSTRACT
Legacy is amazingly pragmatic and “in the trenches.” Street smarts aren’t taught, they’re learned, but not all over, and they provide proportion. Legacies, by definition, can’t be “hidden” or undiscovered. The creation of meaning in people life has to be manifest, has to be expressed in order to make a difference in the world, to create a legacy. Someone else—the fates, our siblings, our friends, our enemies, our boss, the government, lawyers—has controlled our destiny, written our biographies, denied us our legacy. The legacy of John Paul Jones is that of a great fighting captain. Our legacy has to be not one of conformance or comfort but of confrontation and commitment. Many athletes hang on too long because they don’t want to leave the accolades and the adulation. But they then detract from their legacy. So, we may come to believe that our legacy is based on the luck of the draw.
