Legacy and Immortality; Life Lessons Pt. 3

I continue the Life Lessons Series with a reflection on Dying and Immortality and how your attitude towards these can change as you get older.

Facing the end of life can be one of the most challenging experiences, yet it is a journey we all must embark upon. Have you ever pondered how to prepare for the inevitability of death or what legacy you wish to leave behind?

Join me, Bill Monty, as we navigate these profound questions, inspired by the quote from beloved actor, Edmund Gwynn. This episode emerges from a year of loss, as I share personal reflections following the passing of several dear friends in 2024, prompting a reevaluation of beliefs about the afterlife and immortalizing influence. Together, we will explore how historical figures and celebrities achieve a form of immortality through the impact they have on others, and why our own stories hold the power to shape future generations.

As we close, I gently remind you to prioritize safety and self-care, inviting you to continue with me on this journey through future episodes of Bill Monty's Guide for Getting Older, where kindness and reflection guide our path.

Chapters

• 0:00 Guide for Getting Older
• 12:45 Remembering Howie

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:00

Hello and welcome to Bill Monty's Guide for Getting Older. I'm your host, bill Monty. It is said that upon his deathbed, the actor Edmund Gwynn, who most of us know for playing Santa Claus in the original version of Miracle on 34th Street, was asked by a friend Edmund, is this hard for you? And his reply was dying. First heard that quote in the movie my Favorite Year. It was uttered by the character played by Peter O'Toole and I can tell you, as someone who has both played comedy on stage and faced death a couple of times, that there's some truth to that quote. On this episode of Bill Monty's Guide for Getting Older, we're looking at Life Lessons Part 3, death and Immortality. Cue the music. Welcome to Bill Monty's Guide for Getting Older. He's God for getting older. I know I know no one likes to talk about death, but I think it's an important conversation to have, and not just from a financial point of view. Hopefully you have made all the preparations so that you will be taken care of in the event that the later years in your life don't go quite so smooth, or that your will is in place, so that your family or whomever doesn't have to do a lot of scurrying around to try and figure out how to take care of your affairs. Hopefully, you've taken care of that, but I think it's while we're still alive that we need to think about our attitudes towards death. Alive that we need to think about our attitudes towards death, and this has been a year where, for me, I've been thinking about it probably more than any other time in my life, and maybe that's because in 2024, I've lost more people than I ever have before in my life, people that were close to me, that were important to me at some point as I was getting older, and it made me start examining my thoughts and my personal beliefs. Now I will start this by saying whatever your personal belief is, whatever makes you happy good for you If it makes you feel secure, good for you. I don't have any beef with it. Hopefully nobody else does, as long as it doesn't hurt anybody else. I don't have any beef with it. Hopefully nobody else does, as long as it doesn't hurt anybody else.

Speaker 1: 2:27

I don't have a strong religious belief. Is there an afterlife? I don't know. I guess in a way, I hope so and that I've done the right things to make sure that I can partake in it in a positive manner. But I'm not sure there is, because there's a part of me that thinks, if there was, we would have more evidence of it. I don't think anyone really really knows. It's a matter of faith. The character Archie Bunker, from All in the Family, once famously said faith is believing in something that no one in their right mind would believe in. And I could be correct.

Speaker 1: 3:05

But for me, the question of death is more about have I done everything I can to prepare my legacy? Because for me and other people that I've talked to, getting older means you want to secure more of how you're remembered and you want that to be in a good way. We all make mistakes. We've all hurt people. There's someone on this earth, maybe more than just one person, who won't be sad to see me shuffle off this mortal coil. So it makes you think. What can I do to try and make sure that number is as small as it could possibly be? What are our attitudes towards death and what does growing older teach us about it?

Speaker 1: 3:53

I won't say that I'm afraid of death, but if it were to come down to it and I had to go to, had to go through a medical procedure to not pass away, I would do it. I want to hang on to this ride for as long as I possibly can, as long as there's not suffering involved. I don't think I want to hold on to it, no matter what the cost, and I think probably most people feel the same way. You know, when you're younger and I touched upon this a couple of episodes ago there's a sense of immortality. There's a sense that I mean you don't really think about dying that much. I mean, if something happens, maybe you do. Or if you lose a parent or a grandparent, an aunt or uncle, yeah, that's when you think about it, but I don't think you think about it in terms of like this could happen to me, certainly not when you're in your 20s, maybe not even your 30s. Like I say, for me it's been 2024, that's the year it started.

Speaker 1: 4:54

In january lost a very close friend and it just seems that it has been several more since then at an unbelievable pace. And now, yes, I know, as you get older and your friends get older, you're going to know more and more people who die. I've got that. But I've been thinking about how I feel about those who passed away. Most of them I lost contact with. But again, they were important in my life and I wonder how they thought about me, or if they even thought about me. Each and every one of those people I did think about through the years. I didn't dwell on it, but I thought about them because their legacy was they affected me in a positive way.

Speaker 1: 5:37

So I guess, as we look at what we fear about death, it might be that we'll be forgotten. Will there be a trace that we were ever here? Yes, as you get older, your child will tell their children about grandpa, grandma, and they'll tell stories. But the more and more people who remember those stories as they pass away, the stories will start to go away. But think about all the people we never met who have had an impact in our life that have immortality. I'm a big fan of the actor Spencer Tracy. I certainly never met him. He died when I was like nine years old. I think he's my favorite actor. Spencer Tracy is immortal because of the films that he did. People who did kind things, mother Teresa, the person in your town or community who helps everyone else without asking for anything in return.

Speaker 1: 6:40

I guess what I'm saying is that we're looking for ways to be remembered and immortal. And how do we accomplish that? Because, like it or not, death is inevitable. Was it Jim Morrison whose autobiography was called Nobody Gets Out of here Alive? Well, that's the truth. No matter how healthy you are, how well you eat, how much you exercise, how good of a person you are, how bad of a person you are, one day you will die. That's just the way of the world.

Speaker 1: 7:13

But to achieve immortality is to find a way to make sure that people remember you. So, whether it's having a street named after you or a building on a college campus, a business, you know, it's not the reason I started this podcast, but now that I've been doing it I realize the podcast. The thing about them is they kind of live forever. Now, if I stop doing this podcast today, all the episodes I've still done still live on the internet. So as long as there's an internet as we know it, someone could stumble across an episode of Bill Monty's Guide for Getting Older or my other podcast Tales from South Florida, and they can hear my voice, they can hear my stories, they can hear me talk about my life, my fears, my triumphs and I guess, in that sense, beyond the stories that my family will tell and, my friends, I will have achieved some sort of immortality, and for me I guess that's enough right now. It certainly doesn't mean I'm going to stop here, because I think the other way is that you want to be sure that you're doing something to give back to the planet, to your community, whomever it might be, wherever it might be. I was asked the other day what I would like written on my headstone. Now, since I plan to be cremated and have my ashes scattered out at sea, I don't plan on having a headstone, but if I did, I think I would like it to read he Made a Difference and again I've talked about this before early in the episodes, early in the shows, the recording, bill Monty's guide for getting older, about how making a difference doesn't have to be some big act of kindness.

Speaker 1: 9:02

It's as simple as holding a door open for someone. Maybe in a grocery store, the person who can't reach an object on the top shelf. You ask if you can help. You do it for them. Those little things that you wouldn't think twice about after they're done might have meant everything to that person A smile, saying thank you, being kind. We're in a world today where being kind is actually a big deal. So you can find immortality in many different ways. Maybe you'll end up writing a book. You'll end up inventing something that changes the world, or just changes a little corner of it. That's okay too. Not everything has to be life-changing for the universe. Sometimes what you do just in the walls of your own home are what matter most.

Speaker 1: 9:54

How would you like to be remembered, my friends, and what steps are you taking to make sure that you are? What steps are you taking to become immortal? If you haven't thought about it, think about it, develop a plan and start doing it, and maybe you can start with simply just making that effort to be kind every day. It's sad to think that we have to make an extra effort to do that, but that's the way the world is now. So just start with that one step and see where it leads. Drop me a line at BillMonte04 at gmailcom and tell me how you plan on being remembered, or do you think you've already done that? Are you already immortal in the minds of those that it matters most to you? That's BillMonte04 at gmailcom. I look forward to reading that and I ask my friends that you just take a moment if you've enjoyed this episode or any episode, to be sure to hit that like button or that thumbs up wherever you're listening to this from. If you could make a comment, I'd sure appreciate it. If you shared it with family and friends and recommend it, that would be wonderful. Give us a rating. I appreciate that too. Hit that subscribe button and that would mean the world to me. That would help make you immortal. To Bill Monty I'd like to take just a moment to give the names of the people who passed away in 2024.

Speaker 1: 11:29

You don't know them, but from this moment on you'll know that these were people who did something wonderful with their lives, or that they were just really good people. That they were on this earth means something to me, and I'm sad that they're gone. So to Vince Romberg, who helped shape a lot of my acting career in South Florida. To Russ Chard, who was a friend in high school and afterwards got me my first job at Memorial Hospital. To Lynn Galenthin-Piluski, whom I knew at Broward Community College. She was a kind, happy young woman. To Jim Sugatan he was my teacher in high school and Jim Sugatan. He was my teacher in high school and Jim Sugatan was a unique individual. Think if George Takei was a hippie. That was Jim. I recently found out about his passing this past summer. He shaped my life. He changed my life. He was in the right place at the right time to do all the good he possibly could when he was a teacher at MacArthur High School in Hollywood, florida, and Howard Lurie.

Speaker 1: 12:45

I didn't know Howie that well, but I do know he was a very good man. He was a good father, he was a good husband, one of the kindest people that I ever met. I'll miss you, howie. I appreciate all those likes you gave me on Facebook for my stories. They meant a lot. I speak their names to the universe so that they're remembered, and now that you know their names, perhaps you'll remember them too. Again, my friends, I thank you for listening. I hope that you're doing well, I hope that you're taking care of yourself and I hope that you'll join me on the next episode of Bill Monty's Guide for Getting Older. Until then, I remind you as always be safe and be kind whenever possible. It's always possible.