Nobel

Amazing.  I have been reading about Alfred Nobel, the guy who initiated the Nobel prize.  It was his reasons for instituting the Nobel prizes I found fascinating.
Apparently he woke up one morning and read his obituary in the local paper.  The reporter had got it wrong, and it was his brother that had died.   Alfred Nobel had invented dynamite and was incredibly rich.  What he read said in part “Alfred Nobel, the inventor of dynamite, who died yesterday, devised a way for more people to be killed in war than ever before, and he died a very rich man.”
Alfred Nobel was aghast that he had left a legacy of death and destruction.  He decided that that was not what he wanted to be remembered for, so be bequeathed his fortune to the establishment of the “Nobel Prize.”  It was to be awarded in five fields: Physics, Chemistry, Physiology or Medicine, Literature, and Peace.  It was to be awarded to “the person who has done the most or best to advance fellowship among nations, the abolition or reduction of standing armies, and the establishment and promotion of peace congresses"
It was something he said that blew me away (not in a dynamite or dynamic kind of way, but metaphorically).  “Every man ought to have the chance to correct his epitaph in mid-stream and write a new one.”
I concur big time.   It has happened to me.  It has the happened to heaps of people I know.  Ok no one is as rich or famous like Nobel was (if you are I can give you my phone number).
But anyone can feel the need to change their epitaph.  It is as much the domain of the Joe Averages (that is me!) as the Joe Above Average.  I find it so easy to be only going through the motions.
Nobel wanted his legacy to be one that was different to destruction.  Something that stuck in my mind was someone saying “saying nothing is saying no.”  I so easily go about my day saying nothing about my condition and going about my life like all is well.  I know better but no one else does.
It is important I keep up appearances but share my underlying condition with a trusted confident.  My epitaph has not been written.  It is still being written.  Thankfully it is not too late to change it.  I think I will take up that offer.