I read an interview with Julius “Dr. J” Erving.  He was asked the question “What’s the best advice you ever got.  He responded that it was learning one simple lesson:  “It’s all about the dash.”  The “dash” . . . . . 

Dr. J explained that in the cemetery, every tombstone has two numbers:  the year you were born and the year you die.  And there’s a dash in between.  THAT — Dr. J said — is what it’s all about.  “The dash [is everything].  What you’ve done with your life and how you lived it are in that dash.”   At some point, we are all going to have two numbers.  And a dash.

In my post of April 26, 2014, I suggested that it’s better to be a thermostat than a thermometer.  Thermostats take control. Thermostats are on the playing field.  Scoring points.  Making a difference.  Making a dent.  Thermometers sit back and . . . . just tell you the score.   The dash on your tombstone can be a thermometer.  Or a thermostat.  

What’s in your dash?