I'm reading a book called Zen in the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance by Robert M. Pirsig. So far it's a great book. The book is about a man who takes a philisophical approach to his relationship with technology.

Close to the beginning of the book he has a conversation with the couple that's riding with him and his son. His son mentions that his American Indian friend believes in ghosts. After some rambling about how the concept of ghosts is just as real to American Indians as the law of gravity is to us and how the law of gravity didn't exist before it was an idea to humans he says that, in a way, ghosts do live on in their legacies.

That really got me to thinking. Quotes are used very often because they are profound ideas in a tight little package, the wisdom of great people. Everytime you quote another person, for a moment, that person is alive in your mind. Whether that person is alive or dead or fictional, there they are in your mind. I know there's a bunch of philisophical mumbo jumbo involved in it. But that doesn't really matter to what I'm saying.

I'm thinking about my grandfather right now. He was a Cherokee Indian of very few words. But his presence was powerful to me. When I think of him, I think about how it kind of felt as if he was a ghost when he was alive. I didn't know the man behind the face but there he was just living his life, not really making any waves. Somehow I respect that even though it's not how I choose to live my life. Sometimes when I take a step back and just observe the world I feel like a part of me is my grandfather, like that's how he lived his entire life, just observing.

I hope I'm influential enough for people to remember me when I'm gone. I hope people want to tell stories about me and quote me. That would mean that I made some kind of impact on this world.