I often think about the line: “I plan to be forgotten when I’m gone” in the song, The Wild Hunt, by the The Tallest Man On Earth. It appeals to the back-country adventurer in me: explore, but leave no trace. In this sense, I do plan to be forgotten when I’m gone. It’s a pragmatic ideal. It’s not emotional. I want others to do the same so that the wilderness can be enjoyed indefinitely.
While I strongly believe in the idea of “leave no trace” camping, I don’t believe in “leave no trace” living. I think Nimoy gives a bit of inspiration. The video above was posted only 14 months before Nimoy passed away, and here’s what he had to say about what playing one of the most famous characters of all time meant to him (in video at 20:49):
I had choices for the first time in many years. And still, to this day, I consider it a great opportunity and a blessing to live a creative life. To live a life that has to do with finding ideas, and developing them, and expressing ideas, and hopefully making a contribution to the human condition. And that may sound pompous, but it’s real for me, very real for me. When I chose to be an actor it was not because I wanted to be famous, but because I wanted to make a contribution. I thought I had something to offer, and something that might be useful and I wanted to get it out there. And I came across eventually, a piece of writing that expresses the artistic condition, I think brilliantly. It is Edwin Booth, the actor, heard the solemn whisper of the God of all arts, who said, “I shall give you hunger, and pain, and sleepless nights. Also beauty and satisfaction, known to few, and glimpses of the heavenly life. None of these shall you have continually, and of the coming and going, you shall not be foretold.” And that for me sums up the life of a creative person, what a creative life is. It’s painful, it’s exhilarating, it’s difficult. [You] never know what is coming next, so you ask me what’s in the future? All I can do is hope that some more great opportunities come along to express myself.
Researching that Edwin Booth quote, I found this speech by Nimoy for the 2012 Boston University graduates. It was one of the best things I’ve read recently. I don’t think Leonard Nimoy is going to be forgotten any time soon.