How do we measure our lives?
Lives, measured in numbers.
Your bank balance
Your height and weight
The price at the pump
Your phone number
The amount on your paycheque
The number on your tax bill
Your social insurance number
Your pension
And a number
A number you track as it goes up and up and up
Until it's too big and you stop paying attention
Because it is so much easier just to pretend
Lives, made up of people.
People you know and love
People you have met
"Friends" on Facebook
"Followers" on Twitter
People who "like" your Instagram photos
People who hire you and fire you
People you work with and people you work for
People who lead and people who follow
People who are there when you need them even if you don't know who they are
People you will never meet
Millions upon millions of people
People you chose to help
And those you turned your back on
Lives, made up of time.
Seconds and minutes and hours and days and weeks and months and years
Moments of clarity
Minutes of indescribable joy
Hours of contentment
Hours of despair
The day you met the love of your life
The day you met your dog for the first time
The day your child was born
The day your dad died
The day your town burned to the ground
The day a pandemic was declared
Months of waiting
Waiting for summer
Waiting for Christmas
Waiting to meet the "one"
Waiting to buy a house
Waiting to sell a house
Waiting to start your career and then waiting for it to end
Waiting for it all to go back to normal.
Whatever "normal" means.
And years.
So many years
Years of childhood
Years of raising children
Years of figuring it out and you never really do
Years when you did your part,
Day after day, hour after hour, minute after minute
And then
A second
A second when you made a choice
The second you decided not to care.
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