Numbers. They are our identity. They are everything to us. They are the tool by which we measure everything. How old we are. How young we are. How much we earn. How far we have come. How far we have to go. What time we need to wake up. What time we need to go to sleep. Even the title of this post, those that came before it and those that will come after it. Everything in our modern lives is surrounded by numbers. For what?
It might be worth examining the moments in any given day that aren't submerged in numbers? Numbers can't really be attached to the innate senses most of us share? We can't smell or taste or hear or touch or see anything's approximate distance from us. Yet we constantly attach numbers to everything. And why not? Is counting not one of the things we learn first as infants? Are numerical values not driven into us throughout our fundamental education? If we examine our lives under the largest microscope we can find, are we able to truly identify the things in any given day that are not connected to numbers? Do we quantify a hug from a loved one by attaching a number to it? Do we estimate the numerical value of a letter received in the mail from an old friend? Do we statistically analyze the effects of having a door held for us as we pass through it? No. Are our lives truly not defined by those few moments a day when we lose sight of the numbers and just embrace the present and all it has to offer? Do we not find more pleasure in experiencing the limitless world of our natural senses than by those that we create mentally?
Our minds are impressive tools capable of incredible things. If we muddy them up by constantly addressing the numbers we've created to identify things, we are missing the purpose of our lives.
Numbers are for measuring. Measuring is for comparison. Comparison is for judgement. Judgement is for ego. Ego is for death.