A Curious Saying From A Great Man

"A life is not important except in the impact it has on other lives." -Jackie Robinson

"That's easy to say if you're Jackie Robinson." -Josh Burstein

The first quote appears in the Jackie Robinson Rotunda in the Mets' new Citi Field; the second, mysteriously enough, does not.

Jackie Robinson was a remarkable, courageous individual.  Clearly, his actions opened up opportunities for a countless number of people, and positively impacted a great many lives.  Not only that, but he changed the way baseball is played, and for the better -- he turned baserunning into a nuanced skill.

But I don't like this quote.  As a friend of mine pointed out, it contains a flaw in logic: if Robinson considers "other lives" to be important enough to impact, then isn't "the life"--i.e., the individual--that is doing the impacting just as important?  In other words, if it has been decided that all lives are important enough to be positively affected, how can we deem an individual's life to be unimportant because he didn't have a strong impact on other lives even though we have already deemed his life important enough to be affected?  Read that sentence a few times and I think you'll understand.  Questions and comments welcome!

This logic flaw ties into my core issue with the quote, which is a widespread issue in human nature; that we tend to believe that the only way, or the best way, to live is the way in which we have lived our lives.  That is why I included my take on the quote at the top; it is easy to prescribe a sole method of living when that method is the one that you have lived your life by.  Obviously, Jackie was well-meaning when he said this, but the idea that there is only one way to live life or to measure the importance of an individual's life is utterly ridiculous (How can the impact one has on other lives even be measured?).  A recluse with no family and no job may have a very different definition of importance than Jackie Robinson, but does that make him any less important?   I, for one, don't think it's selfish to say that it's okay to derive importance from based on how your actions impact your own life as well as the lives of others.