Man has always sought to be remembered after his death.
Some achieve this through writing, their books being read decades after their demise, perhaps even centuries later.
Some achieve it through painting or sculpture. Works of art are treasured and kept in museums and galleries as a constant memory of their creators' talent. Cave paintings provide a lasting memorial to our ancestors.
Some extend their mortality through invention and are remembered for as long as their inventions serve a useful purpose.
Others live in our memory through notoriety. The famous are often remembered through having a statue erected in their honour, or at the very least, by being in the history books.
Celebrities of course, leave their hand prints in Hollywood's walk of fame as well as being remembered through the legacy of their films.
How jealous they would all be of the humble snail which I found in my garden this evening, for this snail is a perfect fossil, so lifelike as to fool a blackbird. He is many thousands of years old.
All the snail had to do to achieve man's dream was to be in the right place at the right time when he (or she) died.
I carved my initials in a tree. Does that count?
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