“…the good is oft interred with their bones.”

Or these days, lives on in the Internet. I never quite agreed with Shakespeare in this line. I think the good lives on beyond the grave.

In the book, Lies my Teacher Taught Me author James Loewen talks about how certain African tribes divide people into three categories: those alive, the sasha or living-dead, and zamani or the dead.

This was brought to mind yesterday when I was trying to debug an issue which turned out to be a bug in SQL Server 2016 SP2.  While trying to debug it, I needed to add a user to an SSIS setup. This has been a problem in the past, but I recalled I had used #SQLHELP on Twitter to ask the question and gotten a great answer. So, a quick search later found the response I was looking for. The fully correct answer (since MSFT’s page leaves out a step) was available at: http://sqlsoldier.net/wp/sqlserver/howdoigrantaccesspermissionsforssistousers

Now, many of my readers won’t recognize the name, but some will: @SQLSoldier, a member of the #SQLFamily that passed away recently. At the time of his passing I had forgotten that he had reached out to help me last year. The search yesterday though brought it back to me. I never had the honor of meeting Mr. Davis in person, but I know many others spoke highly of him. It was comforting to me to know that even months later his legacy was still helping me (and presumably others).

After thinking about that, I got thinking about my dad.  Soon after he passed in 2015, I picked up the hefty Milwaukee right-angle drill that had been his and was now mine. I was working on the addition (that he had helped design before his death) that has since become my office. I had always liked that particular tool. It has a certain heft and power to it.  At the time, with his death so close at hand, it was a form of grief therapy for me. I had often used this in my youth, helping him out with various construction projects. To this day I’ll pick up one of the tools I inherited, or start a house project using the skills he taught me and I realize, he’s sasha, living-dead. He’s still lives on in me.

SQLSoldier is also living-dead, he’s very real in the hearts and minds of those who knew him and his legacy lives on, still helping others, such as myself.

As my age is now entering its 2nd half-century,  I wonder more and more what my legacy will be. I hope that when I’m sasha, my legacy can still help and aid others.

And with that, I will conclude with a scene from one of my favorite actors in one of my favorite movies:  “What will your verse be?”