Is the Dash Really A Straight Line?

Older tombstones will often tell you something about the person buried there but modern stones usually have a date of birth then a dash and date of death. You may see 1901 – 1998 under the name and that is all there is for that life.

The dash there fore contains all those years and events and leaves you to wonder what it was all about. Now is that dash on close inspection really just a straight line? If we magnify it by researching the life of the deceased what will we find?

I think that we will find a long series of interlocking circles of people, relationships, and events. People come into our lives and we share things and events and then we go our separate ways and they become one of our circles. Later we cross paths again and a circle interlocks. One example is found in our online social networks’ like “Facebook.”  Since joining facebook I have been contacted by hundreds of old friends and family and the circles come back around and interlock. Going to my high school reunion did the same thing.

So you see I think that that life dash on the tombstone is really a series of interlocking circles.