Merchant of Death Dies
This was the headline in a French newspaper in 1888, reporting the death of Alfred Nobel, the Swedish inventor of dynamite. The article, however, was a mistake. The person who had actually passed away was Nobel’s brother, Ludvig Nobel. Still alive, Alfred Nobel was shocked to read his own obituary in the newspaper. What unsettled him even more was being labeled a “merchant of death.” It forced him to confront how the world saw him. This incident is said to have prompted Nobel, shaken by the realization, to establish the Nobel Prizes.
There’s a saying that how a person lived becomes most evident after they’ve passed away. But even before death, we can get a glimpse of this—like when someone leaves a company or moves on from a community. The way others react to their departure often says a lot about the kind of person they were.
Everyone hopes to be remembered as a good person. To make that hope a reality, perhaps we should strive each day to build virtue and practice kindness, living in a way that reflects the qualities of someone truly good.