pol, self-awareness
Let me also be clear here: I know I often fail to live up to my own standards, and I know I can never know just how bad at it I am. I try to turn the scathing touch of the caput mortuum on myself first. I know I'm not doing everything I could be doing to make the world better. I know that I'm consciously opting in many places to favor my comfort over others' survival. I recognize the limits of my own empathy. I often fail at not expecting of others what I don't do myself.
pol, self-awareness
Despite that, I know that I'm at least trying to leave the world in a better state than I found it, for the sake of all those who will outlive me. If there is a soul that transcends death, a part of the self that outlives the mind, it's found in the stories that others share of us when we're no longer around to tell the tales of us. It's in the lives of all those we touch in the time we have and the memories we leave in others. We live as long as people remember us.
