Nobody likes to think about dying, but, as you age, your future keeps shrinking.  You start to measure time not in how many years you’ve lived, but how many years you have left.  At my current age, I figure, at the very best, I have 30 years to go, although fewer years than that is more likely.  I’m not at death’s door, but I’m certainly on the sidewalk leading up to it.

 

At this point in life, you ponder what you’ve done and what you could still do to leave your mark on the world.

 

For several reasons, I have chosen to bequeath my estate (whatever scraps are left when I die) to California State University, Long Beach, a public university.  Although the university knows who I am, I have requested any monetary assets they acquire from my estate be announced as an anonymous gift.  My motivation is not for recognition or accolades.

 

Now, the reason for this essay.  While my MAD collection has monetary value, I believe the collection deserves to be preserved for its intrinsic value.  Over time, MAD magazine has captured snapshots in time with respect to history, politics, culture, and so on.  The influence of MAD has been felt by many, and thus, I think the legacy of MAD Magazine deserves to survive.

 

I am very pleased to announce that CSULB is working on accepting and preserving my collection when I pass.  In fact, they intend to make the collection a major component of a new center on campus, which, while administered by the History Department, will make its holdings available to other disciplines (e.g., Political Science, Sociology, Cultural Anthropology, Language Studies, Art, and so on).

 

Our initial discussions have determined that my “reading file” of U.S. MADs and perhaps the foreign editions will be kept in the center under lock and key for supervised use by students and faculty for academic endeavors (e.g., the authoring of theses, articles, and books).  The majority of the collection will be archived in a controlled environment in the campus library and used for presentations and exhibitions by CSULB and for lending to other institutions for the same purposes.  (I’ve also acquiesced to lending items in the nearer future for presentations.)

 

I am truly excited that my collection will live on for generations.

 

Although I’m probably the OG of collectors here, what do you plan to do with your collection at the end of your life?