The desire to speak to those who will come after us — to offer something across the distance of time — is one of the more tender legacy impulses a person can have. It acknowledges that the conversation we are in extends backward and forward, that we are not the first to sit with these questions and will not be the last. Whatever form it takes — letters, recordings, the shape of your actual life — what you leave is your contribution to a conversation you will not live to see completed.
Each step builds on the last.