Death from Love

"Former Enron CEO Ken Lay, 64, whose sunny optimism and Ph.D. smarts enabled him to convert a sleepy Texas pipeline company in the mid-1980s into a global powerhouse, died Wednesday of a heart attack just over a month after his rags-to-riches career ended in a criminal fraud conviction."

This article came from Yahoo Finance, which is actually one of the better sounding articles. Speculations ranging from his faking his death, committing suicide to bribing President's Bush, even at death, Ken Lay is attacked and mocked by the media. In 2001, when I had heard about Enron and its past histories, I was at first shocked and later enraged at Ken Lay's actions. But now, at his death, I feel pity for this man. Pity that his death isn't commemorated. Pity that he had committed such a disgraced act. But mostly I feel pity for his family. A disgraced legacy ruined by the media and gossip.

What had motivated Ken Lay to commit such an act? It it for self gain, selfishness, confucion? Contrary for what everyone thinks, I think it's love. Lay was willing to take the risk for his company, whom he had created from nothing, loved from the beginning and unwilling to give up for whatever the reason. Even when the company is failing, he protected it from the public, just like how a overly protective parent will cover up for a kid who got into trouble. Lay was brought down by two things: Loving the wrong things and loving too strongly.

I do not want to lead a life like Lay's, becoming so attached to one thing that it takes over your life. I want to live a glorious life, helping others, and when I died, to be remembered as someone who cared and who had made a difference in the world.