The Dash

July 31st, 2017

Space and Time 1, acrylic on canvas, 57×70, one in a series of three I painted, now presented by Westervelt Fine Art in Mission Viejo, California.
Whether it fits as illustration for the brief dash of our lives, you decide.

I heard a talk where speaker Beth Moore instructed each in her audience to write the beginnings of their tombstone. First is our name, then our birth date, then a dash. That much we know. Someone else will supply the last date. Meantime, it’s the dash in the middle that makes all the difference.

Pretty brief . . . a dash between two dates.

In typography there’s an “en” dash and there’s an “em” dash, the latter being longer. Who knows which applies to our lives? Either way, it’s only a dash.

“Life is a vapor. It appears for a little while and then it vanishes.” That’s James 4:14, just one of the Bible’s 48 such reminders.

Or by The Rollings Stones:

Here comes just another day
That’s drifting away
Every time I draw a breath
It’s dying away
First the sun and then the moon
One of them will be around soon
Slipping away
Slipping away
Drifting away
Slipping away.*

It’s something to think about. It’s the dash between our dates where we’re doing what we’re doing.

Pretty brief.

Make it count today.

______________

* Slipping Away by Mick Jagger and Keith Richards

6 Comments

  1. Norm Jul 31, 2017
    8:22 am

    Doing the dash… this is a point well made, Hyatt. If I might add, underlying the doing needs to be the being. “We can listen to the lies our entire lives about who we should be, why we’re unloved, and what we didn’t do, that we become deaf to who we really are.” Ann Volskamp said this. There is something to it. The closer we are moved toward God, the more of our real self we discover, and our ambitions so much better fit. Only then does the “doing” become not just successful, but meaningful. The goal: become as transparent as clear glass. Be who you are, in the dash.

    • Hyatt Moore Jul 31, 2017
      11:19 am

      Yes, Ann Volskamp, another favorite, and friend. Thanks.

  2. Sue Jul 31, 2017
    9:05 am

    Like what Norm said! My To-Do list is better served when I begin with my To-Be list.

    • Betty Aug 2, 2017
      5:58 am

      Wow. Very good.

  3. Betty Aug 2, 2017
    6:01 am

    Sunrise, sunset. Quickly…
    Thanks, Hyatt. Always good.

  4. Trish Aug 5, 2017
    9:33 pm

    Doing the dash—- never thought of it that way.