Going out with a Bang, or the Nobel piece prize origins.

How would you like to be remembered when you die?  What will your obituary say about you?  Will you leave a legacy? Will you go out with a bang ?  Or a whimper?

Let me take you back to 1888...  where a 55 year old Frenchman named Alfred opened the morning newspaper to find the shock of his life as he read his own Obituary.  “Le marchand de la mort est mort” or “The merchant of death is dead" it mocked relentlessly.  “...he became rich by finding ways to kill more people,  faster than ever before, died yesterday."  It went on to say.

He had been the inventor of Dynamite along with 355 other inventions, yet, the bulk of the obituary was describing the deaths and mutilation that dynamite had caused when used in  warfare.  Rather then the rock it had blasted through for roads and trains to help make for a better future.  Alfred was a man of peace and so it was a shock to read that he was to be remembered in this way.

Sadly, reading that obituary was an even more bitter experience as Alfred’s  brother had died in a nitroglycerine explosion, and his death had been his impetus for making a safer explosive... one  that would save lives,  so the words stung and weighed heavily on him

Alfred didn’t let his brother’s death be in vain, so he struggled to make the volatile nitroglycerine more stable.

One day, a vial slipped from his hands and knowing how volatile it was,  Alfred waited to die when it stuck the floor.  But it didn’t.   It fell into a barrel of wood shavings and the nitro was absorbed into it.  Alfred was alive and intrigued, so rather then let it waste, he gathered it up and decided to see if it still retained it’s potency.  He found he could make it into a paste and roll it and then detonate it safely.  This was the precursor to modern day dynamite

But now, as he read his Obituary, Alfred was able to see that other people looked back upon his life and his name as an outrage; an abomination...  rather then seeing him as a philanthropist, a scientist, an engineer, poet and playwright and a man of peace, which he truly was.

He had had an epiphany forced upon him. 

So when he did die in 1896, he was able to adjust the world view but making his will a testament to his life ... the life that he wished to be remembered for.   It provided a major portion of his 9 million estate to establish a yearly fund of merit;  prizes for physics, chemistry, medicine, philosophy, literature and world peace.

If you have not yet guessed who this man was, he was Dr. Alfred Nobel, and his prizes?  Perhaps the most notable being the Nobel Peace Prize.   This is a true story.  One I loved to read about in the Encyclopedia Britannica, which was “the” reference for information in MY time... the one before Google!

I was doing some late spring cleaning and found a copy of a nomination for Volunteer of the Year award that a friend had sent in decades ago.  It listed charitable organizations I had worked for and fund raised for up to that time.  

She had kindly sought input from friends to find as many of the organizations as she could and had them write a recommendation.

I didn’t win, and I surely didn’t deserve to after reading the accomplishments of others, But, the organizers understood we would like to know we had been nominated and the package mailed to me included the many pages of recommendations recounting how valuable my time had been as a volunteer for their organization. 

It was a testament to my life up to that moment and I was very honoured even to be nominated and it was one of the most wonderful gifts I have ever received.

I have always understood how important it is to give of one’s time.  I would like to be thought of and known as someone who gives back to the world.  When I die, that is how I would choose to be remembered.

PS: This was written as a speech i made for Toastmasters at a time when I was depressed and being able to speak to an audience was patrt of my recovery. It really did help. Those last 2 lines are real, as sappy as it sounds.

 How would YOU like to be remembered?   I do hope you go out with a bang and are remembered for all the good that you have done and that you make each day an opportunity to be YOUR legacy.