When we look up and see white trails across the sky, we know that something has passed; a plane has just passed and has left its marks. These marks dont last forever; but after time passes, you will see the blue sky as though nothing happened.
Never forget that this is a reminder of how some things happen in life. So much of what we do seems it will last forever when in fact it only last a moment. We build, we earn, we collect, we celebrate. And like contrails in the sky, most of it is eventually just go away, or fade, slowly. The applause end, the celebration ends, the news cycles change, the value declines. Something which seems solid and permanent today will be almost obliterated tomorrow, such is life.
Money can provide us with that same lesson. For instance, a currency can be solid for probably decades and then fall from grace. Plenty of empires constructed on precious metals are history now. The most trusted banks can even fail. Inflation steals value of our savings; Market rises and fall and rises again. Wealth leaves a mark in the air too; but like contrails, your wealth leaves a mark but it is not forever. If you do not continue to grow it, it will dissappear with time.
Crypto also show this truth. Coins come and go. A project can have bright spots in the sky and announce itself as possibly the next biggest thing. But when the emphasis falls, the project shines briefly and then fades into the background, and some projects fade faster than others with perhaps a trail on old charts. The blockchain is overflowing with what became fading proof— an address that was once highly active and engaged is now void of activity—only a memory of moving forward.
But fading is not always bad. Fading can represent freedom too. If every contrail was eternal, the sky would always be messy. The disorder of lines would block the sun. Because of fading, the sky can stay clear for future contrails. As such, fading allows for room for renewal in your life, in the markets. When old effaces or leaps out of the way, new can arrive and in some cases, past projects clear space for a better idea or past mistakes lose its hold.
The fading proof also offers a deeper personal question for you: What traces are you leaving? Some marks we make are like contrails; they are visible for a time and then they too fade away to nothing—it could be a chat, a motivation, an advice, a small kindness. Other marks may afford themselves longer hold, and continue to influence people or systems long after we have long moved on. Largely, the most rational way is to hold onto nothing, but deliberately or thoughtfully to make contrails that mark people and our world. In human life, the biggest marks are not possessions, rather kindnesses, courage and wisdom given away for us. They may fade slowly, yet their premise is sometimes beyond our time on earth.
The contrails are a beautiful reminder of balance. Nothing we do will last for eternity, so we cannot expect permanence from something that is by its nature, impermanent. Something new is always possible, and we can always choose to be and act in a way that is meaningful, even if there is nothing in the air above us left. Because even though every proof fades, the journey that it took to create it was real. And that perhaps, is enough.