This week is the British Open. If you are not a golfer, it is one of the four major goal tournaments that is played each year in July. Two of the top contenders for the open were asked if they needed to win this tournament to solidify their golf legacy. Both golfers said why would I care; I will be dead (to paraphrase). This got a laugh from many of the reporters in the room. I find the conversation about sports interesting. People are passionate about their sports teams just look at one of the greatest rivalries in sports, the Boston Red Sox and New York Yankees. As a kid growing up in Boston, I saw fights just because one person had a Yankees hat and the other a Red Sox hat. I also saw sports unite people like the Yankees going to the World Series in 2001 after 9/11 eventually losing to Arizona or the Red Sox winning the 2013 World Series after the Boston Marathon bombing where the phrase “Boston Strong” was the theme. I am not denying the relevance of sports. We can see its meaning just from watching the World Cup but when does a person’s legacy come down to a kid’s game that if you are luck you can play for 5-7 years on average is a mystery to me.
Scotty Scheffler is one of the world’s best golfers and when asked about his legacy in golf he said,
“To be completely honest, not really. I don’t really play for a place in history. I’m not playing for anything like that because – this is going to sound a little morbid – at the end of the day, I’m gonna live my life and then it’s gonna end. When it ends, I’m going somewhere else and I’m not gonna be here anymore. Legacy and all that stuff was never really something that motivated me. I’d much rather be remembered for doing things the right way than the guy that won all the tournaments”
He understands how fortunate he is to get to play the game he loves and make it a career, but more than that he knows that his legacy is more about who he is than how much he wins.
As I have grown and I have come to realize that all the pats on the back and recognition I craved as a young man means nothing if I choose to live my life without dignity, integrity, and living my life in the right way. It is an ongoing journey for me because I am human and sometimes, I fall. It is what I do after I raise that determines what my legacy will be.
I am not going to be world famous and you will not read about me in the history books, but I hope that when my time comes my children will be proud of the man, I was, but even more importantly I want them to be proud of the man I am today. I hope when you ask my brothers what kind of brother I am, I hope they will say I am the best big brother. I hope when you talk to my wife, she will say I am a good husband, and my friends will say I am a good friend. My legacy is about how I am living today and by honoring dignity and holding to my faith I want to be remembered as a person who made mistakes but always strived to do the right thing.
As Scotty Scheffler said, “I’d much rather be remembered for doing things the right way than the guy that won all the tournaments”
Charles Redd RN
Dignity Freedom Fighter
Dignity Freedom Fighter 