Eftless
adj.
mildly disappointed that you’ll never be able to attend your own memorial service; frustrated that you could spend your entire life trying to build some sort of legacy to leave behind, but just barely miss your chance to catch a glimpse of what that legacy might be.
German Effekt, effect + less. As he was dying at age forty, Franz Kafka instructed his friend Max Brod to burn all his literary works upon his death, but Brod famously defied the request and published them to worldwide acclaim. At the time, Max Brod had been a household name, a celebrated author whose first novel was hailed as a masterpiece. Meanwhile, Kafka had spent his life walking the streets of Prague as a complete unknown, and died without ever suspecting that his hometown would soon become synonymous with his name. The world had been unequivocal in its judgment of the two writers, but posterity soon overturned the verdict.
