How will your friends and family remember you when you are gone… after you die?  Will they remember the things you did well or will they reminisce about your quirks and shortcomings?  Are they being disrespectful to only think about your flaws?  Maybe they remember your weaknesses because they enjoyed being in your company in spite of your flaws.

Friends and family can admire our different skills, abilities, and strengths, but oftentimes its is hard to relate to us on those things.  The knowledge and experience we have in an area might be much greater than theirs and they can not fully comprehend your world.  Our friends and family may never see us when we are our working environment and just know us when we are at home, relaxing, or otherwise away from work. 

People can relate more easily to us through our flaws because we all have the same human struggles of daily living.  Some of us do better than others in managing ourselves and our environment. Our imperfections will be most remembered in the emotions of those we leave behind when we are gone forever.

We may have character traits which others may think of as weaknesses such as being shy or disorganized, stuttering or having certain phobias.  These make us unique in the eyes of others and they can more fully appreciate our strengths when they know our weaknesses. The beauty of our imperfections can only be appreciated by the people who really love us dearly.

I can not help but reminisce about my close friend, Glenn, who died at the age of 45 with a rare cancer.  He grew up with his very domineering father and two sisters after his parents divorced at an early age.  Glenn stuttered some especially when nervous.  Because he never had a mother at home, he spent his life looking for love in all the wrong places.  He was intelligent and physically very strong, but  had a generous spirit so that people would often take advantage of him.  Glenn had his faults, but I miss him as a friend very much.

Below is a Good Will Hunting style video of a widow memorializing her husband at his funeral. She begins by talking about her husband’s crude habits which shocks the funeral guests and then ends talking about beautiful imperfections.