Becoming the Dash

Making up a story about life has no benefit to it because regardless of what the story is, one day it will end and the only thing left will be the dash between the day life in this form began and the day it ends.

Everyone regardless of who you are will sooner or later have a born date and death date separated by a dash and that dash represents your life, regardless if it’s a week or a hundred years long. It doesn’t matter much whether you accomplish great things (to the ego it does) or if you live a quiet uneventful life, you will become the dash and be equal to all the other dashes that came before you.

The other day I attended the wake of my ninety eight year old uncle who passed away and although ninety eight seems as though it was a long life, for him it’s over and his life is now represented by a dash. My uncle was a good man and this isn’t to diminish anything he accomplished in his life, but what does any of it really matter. He is the same now as all those who came before, regardless of the life he lived, good, bad, or indifferent. The point of this is to show how no matter what, we will all become the dash one day. So what are you holding onto that you think is so important?

What story are you telling yourself? It doesn’t really matter because it will change many times throughout your lifetime and at the end the only thing with any significance is the stories that others have about you. And these only matter to a degree as they’ll only last until the last person who knows you also dies. This isn’t to say there’s no purpose to life, I just don’t know what it is. I don’t see how making up a story is beneficial because regardless of what story is held onto, sooner or later it will end and the story of becoming the dash is the only one that will remain and this is regardless of the way one’s life was lived. So remember live now and forever hold your peace or at least until it’s time to join all the other dashes that came before you.