other|matters

There is a need we have for “eternity.”

When we reach the final years of our lives, meaning “old age,” we see a change in our role in the world. The world is no longer our uncharted domain, waiting for us to conquer it. Now, we find ourselves vulnerable to the world. Little things that we ignored in our younger days now disturb us. As we find our mental and physical capacities decrease we find that we are vulnerable.

We saw this change in our parents who seemed to grow through phases of increasing tension, when we thought that the opposite should be happening. At the time, it irritated us. But now we are in those shoes. We went from the feelings of immortality that accompany youth to this feeling of closure. We are simultaneously facing the decline in our condition, simultaneously facing our own mortality, simultaneously wondering what is beyond, and simultaneously looking at the world we are leaving behind us.

And, thus, we yearn for eternity. Thus we yearn for legacy.

The world has become so much more of an abrasive place, so different than the quiet arenas of our childhood. The world has perhaps even veered off course, taken a direction that frightens us.

Yet, we look for a way to be eternal. And that yearning depends upon how real we make this world. We yearn that the world remembers us, either from an award, or a statement, or some sort of legacy. We yearn for permanence.

But, this world is impermanent. When we leave this world, we will forget this world far faster than it will forget us. We seek permanence in a world whose nature is impermanence.

Heaven, however, is permanent.

And Allah knows best.