The Dash

That day, SL sent me a link to a site called The Dash (www.thedashmovie.com). Go watch it.

Although I’m weary of all commercially available self-help and inspirational material, I gave the site a chance. So, I watched the short slideshow.

The show was quite literally about “The Dash” — that insignificant-looking symbol that separated the year one was born from the year that one died. I couldn’t say I was completely moved, but it gave me thought about my own life.

I’ve never wished for myself to be great or a giant among mortals. I strive to be an honest person that takes my fellow human beings seriously. Secretly, I’ve harbored the hope that, when I died, my legacy would not be one of how rich I was, or how successful I had been. How wonderful, if I could witness my own funeral, to see if my life mattered to anyone out there at all to coax them to attend my last rites. And to see that if the little ‘dash’ on my tombstone, meant anything to anyone.

I’m not greedy. I only wish that if I died today, my little ‘dash’ would stretch a bit into the lives of my loved ones, my family, my friends, or even the stranger I stopped to have a chat with. If that happened, I would not have lived in vain…

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