Each person on this earth has a little bit of athazagoraphobia. We are afraid of being forgotten once we have passed on to new phases of our life or into the afterlife. Our names will be taken away with the wind and never remembered again.
I think of this more as I research my ancestors. So many of them we don’t know anything about them. We’ve never heard of them. Who was George Smith? Well, a grandfather four generations back, but nobody in family knew of him. He was forgotten.
It seems that only famous people are remembered after a generation or two. Maybe that is why we all have the athazagoraphobia. We see those forgotten and have no desire to be like them. We want to be remembered.
So how do we do that? There are a number of ways.
- Name your descendants after you.
- Get published
- Be newsworthy
- Create something
None of this means you have to be famous. Yes, those famous people are remembered. They are famous, that is why. But that doesn’t mean you can’t be remembered as well.
We might not be known on the other side of this large planet, but most of don’t want to be forgotten by those we matter to the most. We don’t want to be like four times great-grandfather whose name is forgotten. We want to have a legacy.
I’m hoping to resolve some of this in my life through two ways. One is by doing research into my ancestors. I am discovering those ancestors’ names which has become very fascinating. My name has been handed down for several generations. I knew I was named after my great-grandmother. But she was named after her great-aunt in Germany. I now know about that woman so she is not forgotten.
Another way I am fighting against this fear is to write stories. Most of them are about my family. I have taken many stories told to me down through the years and created short stories or novels on them. Those events won’t die when family does. They will go on in the minds of others.
I’m not obsessed with the athazagoraphobia in my life, but it is there. As I get older, it has become more apparent. My job is now to deal with it and satisfy as well as I can.
What are you doing to face it?
Author Rebecca Graf 