Write your own....

Sometimes, without warning, the future knocks on our door with a precious and painful vision of what might be. Over a hundred years ago, a wealthy inventor read his own obituary, mistakenly published years before his death. Wrongly believing the inventor had just died, a newspaper printed a harsh judgment of his life's work, unfairly labeling him "The Merchant of Death" because of his invention--dynamite. Shaken by this condemnation, the inventor made a fateful choice to serve the cause of peace. The inventor was Alfred Nobel who seven years later created The Nobel Peace Prize and the others that bear his name.

I wonder, what would my obituary say? I look back at my life, trying to imagine it in print. Sure there were moments of greatness worthy of praise and respect but there were probably many more regretful decisions made. It's easy to say I have no regrets, that I lived my life in the best way possible at any given moment and only with the assistance of hindsight do the mistakes become glaringly obvious. Saying these words, having this opinion is one thing...actually putting my life choices in print is a whole different ballgame. Try it. Simply take one moment worthy of praise or regret from your past. Think about that moment and then try to describe it in words. Suddenly seeing those words before you make them seem much more harsh or painful. It's not easy to describe a former decision in a concise, to-the-point manner and still give an accurate representation of the events. 

The obituary of Alfred Nobel is a perfect example. He was a great inventor of dynamite. His invention changed the building and mining industries forever. But the writer of his obit focused on the dangers of dynamite and the costly toll it's use demands from mankind. The same can be true of all of us. Something we did for all the right reasons can look selfish or harmful when described in writing. The question is...which is it...selfish or selfless? Does the act of printing our past bring to light all the flaws we've worked so hard to ignore?

Just for the heck of it, write your own obituary....see what the world sees when they think of you and your life. It's time to be recognized for your accomplishments and it's never too late to change course if you have your own form of dynamite in your past.