“Nothing’s so Sacred as Honor and Nothing’s So Loyal as Love.” Wyatt Earp (1848-1929)
How many people have lived and died since humankind first walked on earth? Why do we know the names and stories of some while others have slipped away unnoticed? Why isn’t every life remembered?
Guided By Values
I have no firm knowledge Wyatt Earp lived with hope as one of his guiding principles. But his epitaph suggests the value he placed on honor and love. He defined honor as sacred and love as a quality allied with loyalty. He lived, or at least wanted to be remembered as one who lived intentionally by those values.
Values of honor, love, the sacred in life and loyalty begin in hope.
Values of honor, love, the sacred in life and loyalty begin in hope. There is no lasting honor without the hope it will be replicated and embraced by others. There is no love that doesn’t hope it will be returned. The Sacred implies hope in something beyond normal motivations and rewards. Love seeks hope to differentiate it from fleeting infatuation.
Making Certain You Are Remembered
- Write a book, a musical score, or produce a work of art.
- Invent a new product that has utility.
- Improve an old product that is energy efficient and is made of recycled materials.
- Live and die for a noble cause.
- Live to bring relief to the least, the last, and the lost.
- Provide humankind with a new way to experience what we take for granted.
- Make a list of the attributes of all the people you remember and attempt to emulate those attributes in your life.
Can you sense the futility of making certain you will be remembered? No matter how noble, how earth shattering or how unique your accomplishments, you and your accomplishments will be forgotten as time marches on.
Live with Hope
Live with hope. Wyatt Earp’s contributions to just outcomes could turn cowboys into poets and gunslingers into agents of peaceful outcomes. He is remembered by those who wish to find something more noble than the next gunfight.
In the end, we will be remembered by those who discover in our lives a better, more satisfying way to live. People followed Jesus because his example led others to find hope even in hopeless times. He offered hope that would conquer the fear of death.
Other individuals, by the conduct of their lives, have offered examples of intentional transformational living. Plato, Socrates, Buddha, Gandhi, M.L.King, Churchill, Mandela to name a few who I remember because they offer me a glimpse of hope in a world under assault.
Live with hope and let your life encourage transformational opportunities. Someone will be searching and will find you. Offer them your hope. Those who have been forgotten, never offered hope as an alternative.
I liked your blog. Will read the rest of them soon. I was just at the National Civil Rights museum in Memphis and listened to MLKs last speech before he was assassinated. He had hope. He was sure he had seen the promised land and he was not afraid of anyone, (despite a multitude of death threats.)
He said he might not get there but he knew the people who marched with him would.
Thank you for your feedback. I will be interested in hearing what you think of the other posts on the site. There have been some memorable people who lived as examples for us. Peace.