Dead People are Vain

In my Ancient Art class this semester we talk about some of my favorite subjects, archaeology, tomb inscriptions, history and art. Today in particular we were talking about Babylon and Lagash, and the relics that Hammurabi and Gudea left behind for all of us to find thousands of years down the road. Looking in the book today I realized something, those guys were incredibly vain and even more vain in death. In fact most of the rulers or famous priests we have discussed in that class seem to have what I like to call "Child-Star" syndrome, or the fear of being forgotten when you're out of your prime.
I've also begun to notice that we all have that problem. I think we're all afraid that people won't remember us when we're gone or that they won't think of us now while we're here. Since middle school I've seen people do some pretty crazy things for attention; from boys serenading girls on school buses so they'd be their girlfriends to people fanning suicide attempts so you'll tell them how awesome they are. The last one may sound extreme and judgmental but trust me, it happens. The thing is, when people go to extremes for attention, like Gudea making thousands of statues of himself, it rubs people the wrong way and makes you look like an attention-whore.
We're all guilty of being obnoxious and trying to get attention at some point but we need to look at ourselves and ask, "am I doing this too much?" Because I don't think anybody wants to be remembered as the person that couldn't live without being in the limelight and bugging everyone all of the time. If you know you are doing it then maybe it's time to take a step back, sit down, let one of your friends or family members enjoy the spotlight that you crave. Unless you're like Gudea or Hammurabi I seriously doubt you have the power and resources to make people give you constant attention and memorialize you anyways (plus I don't think you really want a woman in her art class to think about how futile and vain your efforts at living on forever were).
I guess all I'm trying to really get across here is that you need to be comfortable enough with yourself to be OK when you don't have constant attention. To not worry that people will forget about you. All that matters is that you live your best life today and remember to pay the kind of attention to others that you want for yourself. Kind of like a weird ego re-hash of the golden rule, isn't it?