How will you spend your DASH?

Recently a buddy of my husband's suddenly passed away. WAIT, WAIT - it gets better there's high-quality leadership stuff in here, truly - just one more quick bit on death - At the funeral the minister pointed out that on our tombstones our birth year and death year are written with a dash in between, you know like Earhart 1897-1937 and Mead, 1901-1978, and he asked, "How will you spend your dash?"

It got me thinking about a provocative leadership exercise

(not original, pioneering or innovative - unless you actually take the group out to a funeral home or a cemetery or an old cathedral in the heart of Italy and go down into the caverns where only candles burn and the finest wines are stored. Picture the old ministers or priestesses in their robes, the musty smell of damp, dusty stone - and a little liquor on the breath of the ordained - a flicker of light that ends as the next begins. The silence is hollow and the air suffocating. As you pick up a feather pen and dip it in ink you begin... THAT would be incredible!...you could really make this thing into an event. Even if you don't go to Italy it's powerful on its own.)

Ask leaders to write their own obituary (a little morbid but incredibly powerful) so as to reflect on what they want to accomplish in life and be remembered for.

I was also reminded of my reaction to seeing my name in ISBN format,

Driedger, Karen, 1963-

"HOLY COW I'M A PERSON, WOW, wait this is strange, it's unusual to see that dash after my birth year, that's usually for the older people who either are waiting to be buried beside a loved one or...I wonder if anybody hears these weird thoughts I have on a regular basis? Wait this is a little CREEPY! I like my little piece of the world, and I li" Okay you get the drift. I had a spanking new perspective of 'me', yep best before and an expiry date. Nothing changed other than my awareness and attention.

So here's the deal, one little dash - or one little phrase, "Life is a journey, not a destination" or two, "Stop and smell the roses," (both of which were once profound, now cliche) makes all the difference in the world.

What profound cliches will endure as a result of your dash?


In loving memory Shag -

Karen