A life measured in numbers

It is a life measured in numbers. If something is not countable, it merely takes a back seat today; the front seat honor is reserved for things to which numerical values can be attached. Today, we want to be able to measure everything that goes on in life! The Daily Star link

We count everything - from the size of the paycheck deposited to our bank account to the number of likes on our last Facebook post. We count likes, follows, and views on our social media accounts. The more likes, comments, follows, and views our posts get, the more acceptable and popular we become, or that is what the countable world would have us believe. 

Our friends have become numbers. We count our friends -- five-hundred, eight-hundred or more. The more friends and followers we have online, the greater the likelihood of pocketing more of those intangible ‘heart’ and ‘thumbs up’ ideograms. It’s all about number, you see.

We count seconds, minutes, hours, days, and months. “I had to wait thirty minutes to get a call back from you.” “Get that project done in no more than three weeks.”

We measure our weight and count how many pounds we have gained or lost. If I had gained four pounds over the last two weeks, it means that I will have to consume less calories the next two weeks. In the modern world, we count the calories in the food we eat, and the calories we need to burn on our next gym visit. We install mobile applications and wear technology devices to track our steps, heart rate, and sleep quality. We must be able to count everything!

We use credit cards and we take out loans from banks. We calculate monthly installments and interest rates. The bigger loan we can take out from a financial institution, the better and nicer our home is going to be. In the countable world, one’s value is determined by what one owns – the number of cars, houses and the number of vacations one takes. 

In the countable world, we count game scores, credit scores, and rewards points. We redeem our rewards points to pay our outstanding credit card bill!

We calculate our test grades and GPA, for we believe that they will one day determine where we will go in life.  We check our phone’s battery health and count its charging cycle. We are possessed by numbers!

But can everything really be counted? Can we count emotions? Can we count moments? Can we count the joy one gets from looking out over the ocean, or getting drenched in the monsoon rain, or playing with their children, or eating a meal cooked by their mother? The countable world has consumed us to the extent that we have forgotten about the happiness the uncountable world has to offer.

For a change, look at the things to which you cannot attach a number. Go on a vacation to relish the unique sights and sounds of a new place. For a change, shake off the obsession with taking countless pictures and posting them online to collect one-hundred ‘likes.’ You do not know if life will give you another chance to watch sunset from Mount Lycabettus. So if you are standing on it, let this moment soak in.