If I were to ask you to name the 3 most common things on a tombstone, I am sure you will get them right. Yes, they are:

• The photo of the deceased
• The deceased’s name
• Two dates (date of birth and date of death)

The difference between the two dates determined whether the deceased lived a long or short life on earth.

May I now ask you what is the thing that appears between these two dates on the tombstone?

If your answer is “-“, you are right again.

The length of this “dash” is the same sitting between the two dates, whether the deceased had a long or short life.

What is the moral of this “dash” in the context of the tombstone?

Life on earth is not about how long you lived or that you died young. It is to be useful, to be honorable, to be compassionate, to have it make some difference that you have lived and lived well, so that it will have an impact on the lives of the living when you are gone.