Improving the "Dash"

At a gathering of friends and family in Boston this past weekend, someone cited a passage they'd recently read. In a cemetery, markers generally have inscriptions containing two dates separated by a dash. The passage observed that it is only the dash, and not the dates, that bears meaning; the dash represents the accomplishments of a lifetime.

Mount Auburn cemetery in Watertown, Ma., just around the corner from the H.W. Longfellow house, is one of the most tranquil and beautiful places I've ever been. I went for a walk there yesterday morning, before heading to the airport. That's probably a strange place to walk under the circumstances, but that passage had really touched me. And so I return home with a renewed commitment to work on my "Dash".