Let us pause for a moment, shall we?  Today’s hottest news bite will be tomorrow’s old news; there will be plenty of knuckleheads out there giving us something to rant about (maybe we will even be that knucklehead!); there will be plenty of things wrong with this world that deserve our attention and dialogue.

And in a peculiar sense, these things are exactly why a pause is justified. . .

There is a quote, one that has found root in many different circles, some religious, others philosophical, others yet just of a common sensical nature.  The origins have been awarded to Frank Outlaw, though that has been highly debated.  Regardless, its words echo a great deal of truth:

“Watch your thoughts; they become words.

Watch your words; they become actions.

Watch your actions; they become habits.

Watch your habits; they become character.

Watch your character; it becomes your destiny.”

With newly elected United States President Barack Obama hailed as America’s personified bailout plan himself (up to the writing of this particular posting) to Michael Phelps’ buddha-bong blunder to whoever this guy was. . .

 . . .the point is that everyone leaves a legacy.  For those of us who still have life, we are still continually shaping that legacy - some of us for the better, other for worse - some mindful of it and others mindless.

While some of us are dealt a bad hand, others got lucky, and probably most of us have just tried to make the best of what we’ve got - whatever that may be.

The above quote is not a fool proof plan - there are all sorts of variables that get mixed in, but its a very wise place to start.  The mind is an incredibly powerful and influential thing, far more than we already take it for granted for, and far more than any of us can probably even comprehend (especially when you add the social element). Hence the reasoning behind “Ignite The Mind” as not some winsome phrase, but an attempt at a penetrating insight.

Regardless, perhaps another quote from Obama’s inauguration speech makes a great deal of sense here too: your people will judge you on what you can build, not what you destroy. In others words, your legacy will not only live beyond you but it will live above you as well. . . My friends, none of us are perfect and this is not a naive belief that we can be nor that enough mental energy can conquer anything, but at the same time, legacies, though conceptually intangible, do leave tangible marks after we are gone.

What meaning will you give the legacy that will live on after you?

- IgniteTheMind