We all have immortality projects, whether we recognize them as such or not.

These are legacies we create to manage our anxiety over our inevitable death: we try to live on in some way.

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Let’s face it; in our culture where death is mostly ignored until it happens, almost all of us are afraid of the grim reaper. A survey by Qualtrics last fall confirmed that dying tops the list of things Canadians are most afraid of.

(Debt was second, which is interesting as it is in itself an immortality project, just a negative one.)

Some leave estates to their children (sorry sons, that will not be me), others become politicians and build literal monuments to themselves. Teachers teach the next generation; business people leave behind their brands.

In Squamish, often the immortality project is attempting to be the best at whatever death-defying sports athletes are into — rock climbing, base jumping, alpine mountaineering and the like.

The act of having children is an immortality project. We hope to live on in our offspring.

I guess mine are my writing and my kids.

What is yours?

I can tell you what you don’t want yours to be: your nasty troll comments on social media. Though we don’t recognize it as such, whatever we put online is also our immortality project.

What will your online footprint be?

Clicking back to look at the social media posts of those who have died is an eerie exercise. The last thing my friend posted on Facebook before he died in 2008 is a picture of himself with his dog. I go back a couple of times a year to look at it.

Given the permanence of the internet, some of the comments made online by Squamish residents leave me wincing.

I am tired of wondering why people do this: who hurt them, why they are angry, what drives them. There’s research on why, but as the Eagles famously sang in their stellar album Hell Freezes Over, “Get over it!” We all have issues in our lives that make us feel like crap. We don’t all spew our anger online. Just some do.

Is this who you are and want to be remembered as — calling someone an idiot or making a racist, sexist or derogatory comment?

The internet is a way-back machine. There are sites that keep deleted posts, pages, and message boards.

Surely, you have more to offer the future.

And if not, time to unplug and find something.