200 Years After

Doing a little light reading this morning.

A sentence read: "We are still talking about him 200 years after he died."

That hit me strangely for some reason.

When I die I will be in the memories of lots of people. For a while.

Some will think "I loved Joe. My heart is broken."

Some will think: "Joe was a good friend. We had some laughs. I miss him already."

Some will think: "I am so glad that son of a bitch is dead. It's about time. He contributed nothing to this world, and was a complete waste of space and any time I was forced to spend with him."

But in 200 years? There will be absolutely no footprint. It will be as if I never existed. How strange is that? No one will know anything about me, no one will be looking me up, I will not be in anyone's thoughts or memories.

Unless Jackson comes through. I'm giving him a minimum of 100 years. So theoretically I could exist until 2124. Probably longer. In Jackson's world he will probably live for 150 years. So maybe I make it to 2174. And if he has kids............................, but I'm not sure about the impact of that. I would be their great-grandfather. I have no clue who my great-grandfather was.

I hope Jackson keeps things rolling for 500 years. But even if he does, at some point I will disappear. I will just fucking disappear like a puff of smoke.

When you die you are gone. That in itself is so strange. We have all lost loved ones. One day they are here, the next day they are gone and you will never see them again. Just like that.

Memories persist. For a while. But they become smoky, then a footnote, and ultimately not even that.

It's tough enough to think about me being dead. But recognizing that all traces of my life will eventually disappear, leaving absolutely nothing where I once was, kind of bothers me.

Maybe that's why serial killers do their thing.