Leaving No Trace

(Some musings on this Earth Day)

Locard's Exchange Principle.
It's what makes forensic science possible.
Basically it means that I leave a mark,
however imperceptible, on everything I touch,
and everything I touch leaves a mark,
however imperceptible, on me.
Leaving no trace is actually
a technical impossibility.

But what if I left no trace, anywhere,
on anything or on anybody?

Wanting to make a mark seems fundamental
to the human psyche. We want to be
remembered, to leave a legacy.
What kind of legacy will it be?

It is true that in the grand scheme,
virtually anything I do is insignificant,
a drop in an ocean. It is also true
that the ocean is made from drops.

What will I leave behind when
I decay and become dirt? Will there
be a statue of me somewhere
in a park, in metal or stone?
A high school or a library or
a college hall named after me?
I actually hope not.

But I hope I am engraved in your heart.

Each time I step away from asphalt,
concrete and steel, each time I
return to the natural world, I wish
to leave no trace of me.

Can I live in such a way that
there is no trace of me
in the garbage heap, no trace
of me in smoke and vapor that
rises to change the sky and kill us all?

I cannot.

Yet, does that mean that I should not try?
Do I want to be a person of despair?
A person of apathy? A person of shallowness?
A person of willful consumption and
callous disregard for anything but
my own comfort and amusement?

It is true that in the grand scheme
virtually anything I do is insignificant,
a drop in an ocean. It is also true
that the ocean is made from drops.
Despairing of my insignificance and
succumbing to the paralysis of inaction
is unacceptable, because...

We want to be remembered, to leave a legacy.
What kind of legacy will it be? Ultimately,
it will be the legacy of who we are.

I would be happy to leave no trace of myself.
Except...in one place alone:

The hearts of my friends.