Merl goes to the future and returns to find a shrine

"I have gathered you all here this evening for an important announcement", explains Merl, as his friends and family look on with puzzled expressions, "I am leaving tonight, and I will not return."
No he isn't being dramatic.
and, no, he isn't insane.
Our friend Merl was approached earlier with a choice. He could either stay here on Earth and live out the rest of his days until he dies an old man
OR
he could travel the universe; every last inch of it...every last planet.
Of course, the catch is he could never see the people he loved again. Travelling the universe requires more than octane. You have to move at the speed of light.
Therefore, a year to our friend Merl would be many lifetimes for his friends.
Anyway, I think Merl had something more to say.

"I know you are all thinking that I've finally lost my last screw, but I kid you not. After this night you will never see me again. I will return...eventually...but you will all be many years dead. I'm not expecting you to believe me now. All I ask is this:
When ten years have passed and no sight of me or my body have been seen, do this for me: go to the place where I spent so much time as a child; my family's log cabin by Kiln's Cove. Leave for me there, buried but clearly marked, whatever messages you want me to read when I return many years in the future. Leave me something to remember you by."

And so he left and journeyed to the ends of the universe. So many things he saw that he began to think of our own galaxy as a speck of dust, and our own sun as a small star. But regrets he harboured...they boiled inside of him. Perhaps he had all he needed back home. Perhaps the company of friends actually does outweigh the exploration of things unknown.

Meanwhile his fame grew back on Earth. He became a myth. A legend. His log cabin became the destination of pilgramages, and eventually, the biggest time capsul/historical site in the world. People travelled from all over to leave messages for Merl, in hopes they would someday be read.

What Merl found when he returned was beyond words.
A 10 story 'museum' of sorts; some floors devoted to messages and notes from pilgrams, some devoted to Merl himself - every detail of his life.

But all he could do when faced with this spectacle was fall to his knees and weep tears of regret.
Was this worth it?