4/20/2024 0 Comments Poem the dash linda ellisThey spoke about being wives and husbands and good mothers and fathers who loved and protected their children. I was blown away by the way these young people understood what would really matter at the end of their life’s journey. There was the occasional “He was a millionaire before he was 30 years old and bought a Porsche”, but the overwhelming majority of responses were not about money or power or fame. My husband and I could not have been more proud of the responses that these young people shared with us. After about 15 minutes, we gathered back together to share our dash stories. When you get to the end of your life and look back at your dash, what will you see? What will the people who knew you and loved you say about your dash?” I asked each young person to start their sentences with “She was” or “He was” – as if the responses were coming from someone who had known them.Īgain, you could have heard a pin drop, as our students split apart to find a quiet space in the youth center to thoughtfully consider what they wanted their dash to say about them. Think about the life you have led so far and the time that you have yet to live. I finished reading verse 3 and told them what I wanted them to do: “I want each of you to spend a few moments thinking about your dash. I admit to being a little shocked by how quiet the group was as I read these words – with rapt attention, they listened intently and you could have heard a pin drop. He noted that first came the date of birth He referred to the dates on the tombstone I asked each of them to fill in their name and date of birth at the top of their tombstone and then I began reading the Live Your Dash poem, ending with verse 3: At first, it was obvious that I had shocked these amazing young people, at least a little bit, but the shock was soon replaced with curiosity as they waited to hear where this was going. I held up a filled in tombstone with my name written in above the dash line, and the date of my birth to the left of the dash. The first thing I did was give them each a piece of paper with a blank tombstone on it and a dash in the middle. The dash represents our life, and more importantly, what we do with our life.Īt the youth group that evening, we were surrounded by about 15 young people between the ages of 13 and 18. But the most important part of the inscription is the dash. I have included a link to the entire poem at the end of this blog, but essentially the premise is that on every person’s tombstone, two dates are connected by a dash - the date of our birth and the date of our death. I created a program around this poem that turned out to be one of the most engaging conversations we had ever had with that group of amazing young people. At the time, my husband was the youth director at our church and I used to help him with the devotional programs at the youth group meetings on Sunday evenings. If you have already shared it in a newsletter, blog you would be advised to take it down now.Many years ago, I came across a poem called “ Live Your Dash” by Linda Ellis. “The Dash” has inspired millions, but DON’T SHARE IT WITH ANYONE! No offence was meant and we did not think sharing a little of the poem was going to be such an issue. We withdrew the blog immediately and apologised to her and are happy to do so again in this blog. It was awful and you can imagine we were concerned. She then offered to settle for a $7,500 payoff if we wanted to avoid litigation, the heavier fine and criminal penalties. Instead of asking us to remove the poem or sending us a ‘Cease and Desist’ letter, Ellis threatened to sue Fuze in a USA court for $150,000 in damages plus legal fees. In these emails the author accused us of theft, plagiarism and copyright infringement.
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