Gone But Not Forgotten

I just saw an ad for customizable tees that say "You're gone but not forgotten" and then you can add your loved one's name and death date. We also see similar memorials on cars, etc. It got me thinking: How important IS it to not be forgotten? Why should it matter?

If you believe in an afterlife as I do, chances are that person is now very busy and they've moved on: They would be sad to think you haven't. And if there isn't such a thing as an afterlife, they simply blinked out of existence: Again, they simply don't care since they've ceased to exist.

And yet while we're alive, we DO care what impact we have. *I* care. While I don't want anyone going around sporting a tribute to me on their back, I do hope that I have affected others to the point that I have enriched lives. I hope that, perhaps, I have created permanent alterations for the good in them.

I think of those in my life who did that for me. The family members, friends, and college professors who helped me reshape my thinking to make me a better person. There are times I do something instinctually now that once took practice to develop, all because of the prompting of someone in my life who influenced me to be a better person.

May I be that person to someone else.