I don’t know what the general feeling is these days about our founding fathers. With what is happening in the U.S. right now, I’ve seen comments where people have said they are probably rolling in their graves right now. Others see them as controversial figures because while they basically built our country from the ground up, most of them were slave owners and that really contradicts the whole idea of a free country.
But putting the differing opinions aside, right now, Alexander Hamilton is my favorite historical figure. I love the musical, obviously. And while I don’t know much more about his life and what he did other than what Lin Manuel Miranda told us, I like him the most because of two things he was passionate about…writing and his legacy.
Much of what he is known for is all the writing he did and how urgently he did it. Letters to his wife Eliza, letters and essays defending the Constitution, the Reynold’s Pamphlet–though Eliza was right, he really needs to “burn” not just for what he did to her but writing and publishing a whole pamphlet about it. So, not all of his writing should be revered. But just the fact that writing was so important to him. In the days long before social media could even be imagined, writing was how he used his voice. He had strong opinions and a “top-notch brain”.
I, too, have strong opinions and I don’t know how top-notch my brain is, but I like to think I can write well. Writing is as much a passion to me now as I imagine it was for him. He’s defending the country he’s helping to build and I write to defend people with mental illnesses. To hopefully help someone understand that they are not alone in what they are thinking and feeling. I don’t have a sense of urgency in my writing like he did. But I do feel it’s the best way for me to use my new-found voice.
And with all of the writing I’m doing and plan to do, I hope the messages I put across in my writing live beyond me. Again, I’m not as concerned about my legacy as Hamilton. He was beyond obsessed. But I do feel that it’s important that I leave behind something meaningful. To show that my life and what I did with it was important.
My father-in-law died more than 30 years ago and people still talk about him and how great he was. He was a teacher and made an impact on so many of his students. Their lives were changed because of him. I know because they’ve told me. When I meet someone and they hear my last name, they always ask follow up questions to see if he was my father. Once I tell them he was my father-in-law, they launch into their story about how great he was and how some aspect of their lives right now is because of him.
Like the way the song goes, a legacy is “planting seeds in a garden you never get to see.” I may never know what my legacy ends up being, or how I will actually be remembered. And that’s o.k. Just knowing that I did my best to put good into the world is good enough for me. Or, to quote the song, “that would be enough.”
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