A noble life crowned with heroic death, rises above and outlives the pride and pomp and glory of the mightiest empire of the earth.

What a person was and what they gave their life for can outlast structures that looked far more permanent at the time. Empires are held up by force and money, and both run out; a life that meant something keeps being repeated by those who remember it. Nothing in that recommends dying for a cause. Scale and permanence are different qualities, and they are easy to confuse.

You are more likely to be asked for a long ordinary integrity than for one dramatic act. Ask what you would want said about how you conducted yourself, and make this week resemble that answer a little more closely.