Death
Live the dash.
- The journey ends the same way for all of us.
- The journey of life. Enjoy it, it’s one heck of a ride.
- Who will you meet at the end of your days? Is the man you could have become, the man you are?
- Plenty of mistakes, but no regrets.
I was considering naming this book live the dash. That is a short form for me of looking at my father’s tombstone, and seeing the dash in between the years: 1944-2006. When you take a moment and think about it, that’s what your life comes down to. The dash. That small mark on the stone between two numbers.
The story is all in the dash. The challenges, the joys, the love, the life, the moments that matter, and the moments that don’t. How many people around you are truly living the dash?
One of the hardest lessons I’ve had to learn, or truths I’ve had to face, is all the lives you know, all the people around you you’ve ever met, will one day be gone. The journey ends the same way for all of us. In the ground. In a memory. In a history book. Realize that, and many many problems, wrongs, and annoyances become a lot smaller.
Will you remember that person who cut you off in traffic? What about that rude waiter? That girl you asked out who said no. That boy you didn’t dance with. There are many moments in every life that are defining, but one of the most is when you realize you won’t be here forever, and that makes you stop and think about how you will be remembered.
I’m often asked what drives you? What motivates you? It’s me. It’s who I want to be. Not the driven one, but the one who at the end of days I’m happy with. Something that drives me is potential. Who is the best version of me? Who is the person I could be, should be, and can be?
There are stories of people who at their end of days have ghosts of their unfulfilled potential around them, crying because they were never brought to fruition. They were never brought to life. It’s not the opportunities that were missed, it is the potential that goes unfulfilled.
So at the end of my days, I want to look myself in the mirror, and know, I am the best version of me possible given the limited resources at my disposal. I did everything I could with what I was given. That the best version of me is who I was. Who I am.
That will have been a life worth living.