Learning from Own Obituary

Learning from Own Obituary

 

About a hundred years ago, a man looked at the morning newspaper and to his surprise and horror, read his name in the obituary column. The newspapers had reported the death of the wrong person by mistake. His first response was shock. Am I here or there? When he regained his composure, his second thought was to find out what people had said about him.

The obituary read, "Dynamite King Dies." And also "He was the merchant of death." This man was the inventor of dynamite and when he read the words "merchant of death," he was speechless. He was troubled and grieved in his heart. He asked himself a question, "Is this how I am going to be remembered?"

He got in touch with his feelings and decided that this was not the way he wanted to be remembered. From that day on, he started working toward peace. He travelled from place to place promoting the causes for peace.

His name was Alfred Nobel and he is remembered today by the great Nobel Prize. Since 1901, the Nobel Prize has been honouring men and women from all corners of the globe for outstanding achievements in physics, chemistry, medicine, literature, and for work in peace. The foundations for the prize were laid in 1895 when Alfred Nobel wrote his last will, leaving much of his wealth to the establishment of the Nobel Prize.

 

~ It is the quality of life we live that matters the most to us but what matters to others is the impact we create ; sometimes we don’t even realize about it ~