Mount Rushmore Musings

Many of you know we have opened a second office in Cheyenne Wyoming. I travel there regularly and this summer my husband joined me. On our way home to Montana we added an excursion to the Mount Rushmore and Crazy Horse Monuments. If you have not yet seen them, I highly recommend it. Not only was it a moving experience, it was also interesting learning what it took to create them.

One of the things that truly struck me was the thought that each of these people made such a difference to the world during their lifetime that someone chose to carve their face into a rock cliff for future generations to continue to learn from and about them. While we teach legacy planning in the financial space this was truly a legacy plan for many, many generations. This will be a series of musings, one for each of the men remembered in these monuments.

The first monument we went to was Crazy Horse. 

This monument is a work in progress and the likelihood of it being completed in my lifetime is small.  As with the Rushmore Monument, it is full of history and while we all have opinions about history, I am choosing to muse about the beauty of what I experienced. Never Forget Your Dreams is the messaging for this monument.  It is from a statement that Crazy Horse made: 

“A very great vision is needed, and the man who has it must follow it as the eagle seeks the deepest blue of the sky.”
– Crazy Horse

These last few years have created an interesting time in our history. Sometimes it feels like we are a lost people because there is no guiding vision anymore. Individuality seems to be of such importance that we have lost a collective reason for caring about one another and our world. Division seems to be the loudest beat of the drum.  

Each of us has the same opportunity every day to create a legacy. This monument inspired me to not only think about the legacy my day-to-day has on others but to also consider the legacy that I will leave for many generations to come.  How many generations into the future can you think of to impact?