faded

i came across this blog last week and it seemed to me that the blogger's observations only went so far.

he's talking about a new book entitled The Writing On The Wall: Economic and Historical Observations of New York's "Ghost Signs" put together by a 17 year-old son of a marketing prez. focusing on its industry for obvious reasons, ad age strolls through the biggest of apples with the book's author, ben, and his dad admiring & discussing the book's topic: fading advertisements. the cited ad age article learns:

“The lesson one gleans, however reluctantly, is that whatever seems absolutely immutable, isn't. Not what is advertised. Not how it is advertised.”

while i agree with him that neither products nor media are always permanent, we can't stop there. is anything on this earth "immutable," that is, it cannot be silenced, its "voice" lingering and our attention continuously in its hand?

if i think of myself as one of these signs, i can picture myself going in & out of mindshare (brightness of paint for the sake of the illustration) as i go through high school college and from town to town after that. in each community i'm in at the time, it rarely occurs to me that most of these people will likely forget who i am (or vice versa) within a period of time proportional to the depth to which i knew them (except in the strange cases when you remember someone who you don't remember, like victor in middle school). even so, i generally conduct myself in a way that will maintain my good legacy as if they'll remember me beyond their grave.

i'm going to bet that, when we're not thinking about it, we simultaneously believe ourselves and our actions to be immutable while knowing their finite, even shortlived, prominence. that's the longing for legacy: the building of tombs, the battling for territory and the unending pursuit of success that makes one's name great.

way back when, somebody made their living by these then-bright advertisements. others "learned" of their "need" from these now weary proclamations. these "ghost signs" presumably fulfilled their purpose for a time. they satisfied the needs of their makers only temporarily until other needs arose as the bigger & better arrived as it always does, always too soon. and so i have to ask myself (and my imaginary readers) how does (can?) one transcend the power of memory? how does one leave a legacy that inspires life, not fading into quaint, nostalgic wonder of irrelevant days.