Leaving a Legacy through Elderhood
Leaving a legacy goes beyond accumulating possessions or achievements to pass down. Leaving a lasting legacy is about actively instilling the values, guidance, and love we share with the people whose lives we touch. Alice and I serve as elders through our artwork, our books, and our loving example of a magnificent relationship that has endure over 4 decades.
Most of us want our time here to matter. Legacy is the depth of the impact that we leave on others. We want the people we love to remember us fondly and carry forward the lessons we've learned. Yet many of us never take the intentional steps needed to shape that lasting impact. In this article, I'll share what I've discovered about creating an enduring legacy as an elder that reflects your true contribution. Whether you're just starting to consider your legacy or actively planning for it, I believe you'll find meaningful guidance here.
Table of Contents
A Legacy of Love
People ask Alice and me how we've stayed madly in love for over four decades. Our sustainable love is the product of daily, deliberate choices.
Before Alice, I had three failed marriages. I entered each one asking the wrong question: "What can I get?" I was immature, self-centered, and unconsciously treating love as a transaction. When I met Alice, something shifted. I began to understand that the evolution from immaturity to maturity is movement away from "What can I get?" to "What can I give?"
Our marriage has been a living laboratory. Over forty-one years, we have researched what makes a relationship not just survive but magnify. The result of that research is my book Loving Promises: The Master Class for Creating Magnificent Relationship, which won both the silver Nautilus Book Award and the silver Living Now Book Award in the category of Relationships, Communication, and Marriage. In it, I detail 39 Loving Promises, statements of intention you pledge to yourself, not to your partner. These are the behavioral components of deep, abiding love. They are not vows exchanged at an altar. They are private commitments to becoming the kind of person who can sustain love over a lifetime.
In Love and Time: Embracing Change, Growth and Mature Relationships in the Winter of Life, I explore how love transforms as we age. Written from the perspective of a man entering his eightieth year, the book examines how emotional intimacy in later life is qualitatively different from young love. It is slower, richer, more textured. Love does not diminish with time. It deepens, if you let it.
A lasting and meaningful relationship is itself a form of legacy. When two people demonstrate, day after day, that love can endure and grow through every season of life, they leave something behind that outlasts them. Our documentary, Legacy of Love, captures this truth on film. You can watch it here.
Legacy as an Elder
Aging is ripening. The maturation of your self awareness and the growth of your heart both lead to a deepening of love. The world needs love and being an elder means you actively provide loving guidance.
In A Call to Wise Elders: Leaving a Legacy of Goodness for Future Generations, I issue an invocation to my generation. I am asking senior citizens to wake up, to share what they know, and to do what they can to make the world a safer, more compassionate place for those who follow. Elders are not retired. We are retooled. Our scars are our credentials. Our stories are our instruments of service. The book is a roadmap for how to use a lifetime of experience to mentor, to heal, and to leave behind a legacy of goodness that ripples forward through generations. You can find it on Amazon.
This call to elderhood is connected to my earlier book, Journey Into Adulthood: A Young Person's Initiation for Navigating the Seasons of Their Life. Drawing on 81 years of lived insight, this book is a bird's-eye view for young people, late teens to young adult, comparing the stages of life to the seasons of the year. It walks the reader from the innocence of spring through the wisdom of winter, offering essential truths about character, relationships, and personal growth. As I have said, "This is the book I wish I had read when I was young." It is available on Amazon.
Together, these two books form a bridge. Journey Into Adulthood speaks to those just beginning. A Call to Wise Elders speaks to those who have arrived. Both carry the same message: your life is a legacy in progress, and every season matters.
Legacy Through Art
Words carry our teachings. Art carries our souls.
Alice is a painter whose work has achieved national recognition in ways that humble us both. She has two paintings in the permanent collection of the Smithsonian's National Portrait Gallery, including a portrait of Chelsea Clinton. Her portraits have hung in the White House. In 2001, her series of portraits of women aged 70 and older, portraying the privilege of aging, garnered national attention on The Oprah Winfrey Show. Alice's surreal abstractism, which you can see in our gallery's New Series, breaks open the visual conventions of what aging looks like and dares the viewer to find beauty in the unfamiliar.
My own legacy through art lives in sculpture. After Alice enrolled me in a clay sculpture class decades ago, I found a natural inclination that had been dormant since childhood. Disturbed by the changes I was experiencing as I entered late-middle age, my work turned almost exclusively to depicting older men and couples in loving embrace. My sculptures do not hide or prettify the effects of aging. They convey the humanity and wisdom attained over a lifetime. Pieces like Sleep in the Hands of God, a large-scale bronze of an elderly figure peacefully cradled within the hands of a larger form, speak to trust, surrender, and the gentle passage of time.
You can view Alice's paintings, her portraits, her surreal abstractism, and my sculptures in our gallery. When you look at Alice's portraits, you do not just see a face. You see a lifetime. When you stand before one of my sculptures, you feel the weight of our shared journey made visible in bronze and clay. Visit our art gallery by clicking the image below.
Legacy Through Wisdom
Everything Alice and I have learned, failed at, and ultimately understood is distilled in our books. From Loving Promises, with its 39 pledges that won the silver Nautilus and silver Living Now Book Awards, to The Art of Aging: Celebrating the Authentic Aging Self, which won the silver Nautilus and the bronze IPPY from the Independent Publishers, to Love and Time, Journey Into Adulthood, and A Call to Wise Elders, our writings are the accumulated wisdom of four decades of conscious living and loving. Alice and I were also selected by the National Center for Creative Aging as two of ten "Beautiful Minds" in a national campaign celebrating individuals 55 and older who keep their minds beautiful and their bodies healthy.
You can browse our complete catalog on our Amazon Author Profile. We also welcome you to visit our own online bookstore, where you can explore each title and find the one that meets you where you are in your journey.
A CALL TO WISE ELDERS
Leaving A Legacy Of Goodness For Future Generations
by Richard Matzkin
“This book is not only a call to action, it is an affirmation that old age can be a life stage with meaning and purpose of its own.” —Carol Orsborn, PhD
“But I'm old,” you say, “Let me relax and enjoy my `Golden Years.' Yes, the world's a mess, but let the younger generations deal with it. It's their world now.”
Except it isn't. It's our world, too. And we in the older generation bear responsibility for helping to create the mess.
We're not too old and it's not too late.
In this timely book, author Richard Matzkin shows how those in the elder generation can be of service and leave a legacy of goodness through their wise words, their beneficial actions, and their wholesome example. The reader will find valuable information and practical suggestions that can help elders define and bring their legacy into reality.
LOVING PROMISES
The Master Class For Creating Magnificent Relationship
by Richard Matzkin
In this unique inquiry into the most profound incarnation of love, author Richard Matzkin looked to his extraordinary, three-decade-long marriage to Alice as a living laboratory to research the elements that comprise a truly loving, magnificent partnership. As a result, he discovered thirty-nine Loving Promises statements of intention you pledge to yourself, not your partner, that are the behavioral components of deep, abiding love.
These Promises are a profound path to transforming even a good relationship into a magnificent one.
THE ART OF AGING
Celebrating the Authentic Aging Self
by Alice & Richard Matzkin
In their award-winning book, The Art of Aging, painter Alice Matzkin and sculptor Richard Matzkin share the wisdom of elder mentors to look for the positive side of growing older and coming to accept and appreciate their aging.
Throughout this beautiful and touching book, the couple explores the experience of aging through their paintings, sculptures and writings. In a series of projects that confront their fear and curiosity about growing old, they examine physical changes, sensuality and relationships, aging parents, spirituality, and death. Drawing on their personal experiences and the wisdom of older mentors, they conclude that the elder years can be a time of ripening and harvest rather than stagnation and despair. Their art features well-known people such as feminist Betty Friedan and potter Beatrice Wood, friends, neighbors, relatives, and themselves. Both artists find a source of creativity in the older nude body. This profusely illustrated book contains a wealth of inspiration, especially for those about to enter their later years.
About the Author
The Meaning Behind Leaving a Legacy
Enduring impact encompasses how your actions, values, and relationships continue to influence others long after specific moments have passed. It reflects both the tangible changes you create in the world and the intangible impressions you leave on hearts and minds.
Cultural and Personal Interpretations
Different cultures view enduring impact through distinct lenses. In some traditions, legacy centers on family lineage and maintaining ancestral values. Others emphasize community contributions or spiritual teachings passed between generations.
I've learned that personal interpretations vary just as widely. For one person, enduring impact might mean mentoring young professionals who carry forward their industry knowledge. For another, it's about establishing charitable foundations that serve communities for decades.
Common interpretations include:
- Professional achievements - innovations, businesses, or creative works
- Family traditions - values, stories, and rituals preserved across generations
- Community service - sustained improvements to local or global populations
- Artistic contributions - works that inspire future creators
The meaning you assign to your own impact shapes how you invest your time and energy. What matters most is alignment between your definition and your daily choices. Here’s an example of our art gallery online as a way of leaving a digital museum behind for the future generations.
Probably one of the most impactful ways of leaving a legacy is writing a book. Alice and I have written several books reflecting the values we want to see entitled into the world.
Emotional Resonance and Memory
Emotional connections determine which memories endure and which fade. I've observed that people remember how you made them feel far longer than specific words or actions. This emotional resonance creates the foundation for lasting influence.
The memories that persist typically involve moments of genuine connection, vulnerability, or transformation. A conversation that shifts someone's perspective carries more weight than a hundred casual interactions. Acts of kindness during difficult times become anchors in people's life stories.
This resonance multiplies when shared experiences create collective memory. Family gatherings, shared struggles, and celebrated victories become stories retold across years. These narratives shape identity and values for those who remember you.
Lasting Influence on Family and Society
Your influence on family manifests through transmitted values, behavioral patterns, and decision-making frameworks. Children and grandchildren often unconsciously adopt your approaches to relationships, work, and challenges. These patterns can persist for generations.
Societal influence operates on broader scales. Teachers shape thousands of students who then influence their own circles. Business leaders create organizational cultures that outlive their tenure. I've seen howliving a creative life can inspire others to pursue their own authentic paths.
Key areas of lasting influence:
| Domain | Impact Duration |
| Family values | Multiple generations |
| Professional mentorship | Decades through career lineages |
| Community initiatives | Variable based on sustainability |
| Creative works | Potentially centuries |
The reach of your influence depends less on its scale and more on its depth. Profound impact on a few lives often creates wider ripples than shallow contact with many.
The Literary Legacy of the Matzkins: A Lifetime of Teaching Love
Richard and Alice Matzkin have established a profound literary legacy centered on the transformative power of enduring love and the authentic aging process. Their award-winning books, including Loving Promises: The Master Class for Creating Magnificent Relationships and The Art of Aging: Celebrating the Authentic Aging Self, serve as practical guides for couples and individuals seeking depth in their later years. Co-authored after 40+ years of marriage, these works translate their personal "living laboratory" into actionable wisdom, offering 39 Loving Promises and artistic reflections that challenge the stigma of aging. Their upcoming manuscript, A Call to Wise Elders, further cements their mission to inspire the next generation of mentors, positioning their written work as a timeless resource for those ready to leave a legacy of kindness and connection.
The Artistic and Media Legacy of the Matzkins
Beyond the written word, the Matzkins have created a vibrant legacy through their collaborative art and widespread media presence. As a sculptor and painter respectively, Richard and Alice have produced over 60 joint works that visually celebrate the beauty of the aging self, transforming personal narratives into universal symbols of hope. Their media footprint includes appearances on national platforms like Oprah and features in major publications, where they share their story of a "magnificent relationship" and their journey as "Beautiful Minds" recognized by the National Center for Creative Aging. Through exhibitions, interviews, and their unique artistic partnership, they have demonstrated that elderhood is not a time of decline, but a creative renaissance, inspiring audiences globally to view their own aging process as a masterpiece in progress.
Leaving a Legacy Quotes
"What we do in life echoes in eternity."
— Marcus Aurelius
"I've learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel."
— Maya Angelou
"The true meaning of life is to plant trees, under whose shade you do not expect to sit."
— Nelson Henderson
FAQ's on Leaving a Legacy
What does it mean to leave a legacy?
Leaving a legacy means pouring your love, wisdom, and creative work into the world so that it continues to nourish others long after you are gone.
What is a powerful quote about leaving a legacy?
"The evolution from immaturity to maturity is movement away from 'What can I get?' to 'What can I give?'"
Can someone alive leave a legacy?
Yes, because a legacy is built every day through the love you give, the art you create, and the wisdom you share while you are still here to witness its impact.