by Marilyn C. Arayata
THE best-looking people are not seen on currencies. Statues and monuments are not erected in their honor. Beauty fades. Even personalities whose social media posts have gone viral are soon forgotten. Horace Greeley said, “Fame is vapor, popularity an accident; riches take wings. Only one thing endures, and that is character.”
How will loved ones and friends remember you when you’re gone? Have you done something altruistic that people will remember you with gratitude? Have you done anything that made some difference that you lived at all? What have you at least contributed to make the society, if not the whole world, a little bit better than before?
An error in an obituary shocked Alfred Nobel. Instead of his brother’s name, he read his own name in an obituary where his invention – the dynamite that kills and destroys – was mentioned. He realized that he didn’t want to be remembered that way, so he left much of his wealth for the establishment of the Nobel Prize which gives awards to individuals with outstanding achievement in literature, peace, economics, medicine, and the sciences regardless of nationality.
How will you be remembered? If we have done something awful in the past, the mere fact that we are still alive means another chance to do what is right, renounce what is wrong, and forget the hurts. Nobody accomplishes anything great by living in the past and holding grudges. Nobody becomes happy and fulfilled if his/her life is purely focused on the self. Happy people are the ones who care enough to help others even in the smallest ways. Being others-centered gives them a sense of purpose. It also protects them from boredom and sadness that arise from self-centeredness.
“I shall pass through this world but once. Any good, therefore, that I can do or any kindness I can show to any human being, let me do it now. Let me not defer it or neglect it, for I shall not pass this way again” (Stephen Grellet).
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