Blog 3712 – 01.09.2026

A Legacy More Than A Hat

Since I first saw Ben Affleck’s first The Accountant movie and heard the song at the very end of the movie, I have used my own karaoke version of To Leave Something Behind as a launching pad for several blogs.

Since March of 2015, I have been publishing this daily blog in an attempt to leave something behind and for the a little over a year I have been working to develop some property in Bon Weir, Texas that I hope to be my legacy to my son and my granddaughter. 

None of us knows how much time remains to us of this particular adventure in time and space. It therefore behooves us if we have any interest in leaving something behind for those we love or merely to mark our passing in some tangible way to get busy about it.

We are defined not by what we think, write, or say as much as we are by what we do and have done with our lives. “Whatsoever my hands find to find to do this day, I shall do with my whole heart, finding purpose in even the most menial and repetitive of tasks.” In addition all those menial and repetitive tasks I have added to my daily to do list, as if I really had thirty years left to work, an ever growing list of steps to restore a small working ranch that once stood on the last almost five acres that I recently added to the thirty-one acres of timberland I had already purchased in Bon Wier located in Newton County, Texas.

The first of many goals for my little ranch is to restore the farmhouse, making it livable and even better and more attractive than it ever was in the next couple of years, if I live, and after that a barn, corrals, and a few head of horses and cattle. I am ever mindful of one of the nastiest things that can be said of any true Texan, that he or she is “all hat and no cattle.” Before she is old enough to ride, I intend to make sure that my granddaughter has a pony and a place to keep it and ride it anytime she can convince her mom and dad to take her to Poppa’s ranch. When Emma Grace made me a grandpa two years, five months, and four days ago she made me more intent on leaving something of value behind, of doing something with my hands, and leaving something behind that a true Texas girl could appreciate, something to go with that cowgirl hat.

Your friend and fellow traveler,

David James White

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1vMeLMcbpUSD9S5BlFwxWe4vDgx3wDiDp/view?usp=drivesdk

To Leave Something Behind