How important is one life?
Have you ever sat and wondered how important you are to the world? Sure, many of us have seen "It's A Wonderful Life" (I hope you have anyhow), and maybe even "Family Man" (another great movie, and I am not a Nicolas Cage fan at all). Therefore no doubt, you can envision the "big" things. Just ask those passengers on the US Air jet which had to crash land in the Hudson River how important pilot (Captain Chesley Sullenberger) was to their lives. But I didn't mean the easy what if, I meant bigger. How many lives does the average life "touch"?
As I began to think about this over the past week or so, I mentioned my thoughts to a friend to see how they would envision trying to determine such a thing. To my surprise, I not only got their feedback, but I got a story to affirm my entire thought process to boot. Let me share their story before getting back to my premise, I think it sets the table well.
My friend actually smiled at me as I asked the question aloud and explained my reasoning, and here is why. She told me of a time when she worked as a cashier at a grocery store. As you can imagine she came in contact with many people from all walks of life, and all sorts of personalities. One day however, as the weather outside began to turn stormy, she said she had been talking to her current customer as she rang up the items. She did this with most patrons, but this day a lady behind her current customer interrupted, rather rudely and asked if she could "hurry it up." My friend said she certainly rang up her items as fast as she could to get this rude woman out of her line and out of her life. I don't think she got the smile and the "come again" as she left.
But, as fate would have it, a few days later, she ends up back in my friend's line. This lady sure made an impression, and my friend could not resist. She politely asked, "Are you in a hurry again today?" The wind left the lady's sails. She felt terrible. She apologized profusely as she paid for her items, explaining why she had been in such a rush. She had left her kids at home alone for the first time to just run to the store for a few things. During the drive to the store, one of those great Florida thunderstorms from nowhere sprang up, and she knew her kids would be scared and alone. (Oh yeah, this is before cell phones were standard). So she was rushing to get home to them.
Anyhow, over the next few weeks and months, the lady continued to get in my friend's line and they slowly got to know each other. After this went on for awhile, they became friends, and even good friends. So my friend truly understood my premise, you never know how much a life can change from a simple smile, "hello", small acts of kindness, or even being rude.
Now, I should probably stop here. But, now I had a story to go along with my notion. My idea is terribly crude in design and scope (since I am doing this myself, not using detailed statistics and analysis skills, just some baseline logic and simple math). Okay, so now I ask again, how many lives does one life touch?
Before I try putting some numbers together, I will take you through the motions of just imagining the list. As you will see, this number is probably much larger than you might think at first. I am just going to try and give you a glimpse of the results.
You start with the easy ones: family. Obviously many of them will come to see the newest member, and it doesn't take long to see the numbers begin to grow. They will probably look to tell others about the new member of the clan, and maybe show pictures to their friends and co-workers. Even though you are not directly talking and visiting with those people, their lives are being "touched" by yours. You have the hospital staff, the pediatrician office and staff. Now, think about neighbors, people in the mall, grocery stores, baby stores, working as the mall Santa, maybe at the day care. We haven't even reached Year 1 yet.
How about church, restaurants, WalMart, in line at the library, waiting in the lobby somewhere. If you travel, there are hotel staff, maybe people in an airport, or on the plane.
Now start to think about getting older. Maybe day care, more trips to the mall, WalMart, the grocery store, Starbucks, more travel, maybe a move so we have new neighbors, or maybe they moved? A dentist office enters the discussion. As you think older, you ponder elementary school. You have classmates, teachers, staff, older kids at the school, in time younger kids at the school, those other kid's parents who will see you at school activities, more trips to the mall, now a dentist and his office staff, and before long, after school sports or activities (scouts?). Add those kids and their parents.
Parents divorce? Get Remarried? Siblings? Their friends? Now start to ponder middle school, high school, more trips to the mall, more travel, more activities.
Now you begin to see how the thread of one life can weave through much of the world. Do we make a lasting impression on all of these lives we come across? No. But what if you simply are kind and smile one day, or say "hi" when someone has had a bad day. That is still an impact.
Take into account college, jobs worked, parties, football games, other social events, dating, those families, a job while in school. Then your career starts, and you have job interviews, hopefully some travel, maybe you move to go to school and again when you get your career started? There will be work functions, travel, training classes, reunions, and the list keeps going.
Keep in mind, I took the idea in a broad scope, by simply touching a life, it does not mean a long friendship grown over the years, it could simply be a relative showing a picture of you to some friends at work from your birth, graduation, or trip overseas. Just think about how many faces you have seen in your life, add to that the notion of your parents/friends/family/co-workers/church members/classmates maybe hearing a story about you, seeing a picture of you, talking about you, and you can come to realize the number is in the realm of hard to imagine.
Just to say I gave it the old college try, I came up with a number. I figured a trip to a store every week, the mall 10 times a year, 1 trip by plane, several by car, eating out 3 times a week, and changing jobs 10 times in a lifetime. College at a big university, and average suburb size schools, since that is where I grew up. Ready?
Assuming you don't move until college, and only a few times in life (obviously not a military family). I figured 200 people per mall visit, living 80 years, 160,000 people. Weekly WalMart and grocery runs, say 100 different people each week, 5200 a year, 416,000. What about restaurants? Say just over 50 per visit, 3 a week, only as an adult, still another 10,000. All those kids in all those schools, their siblings, parents, your sports team/activity friends? Another 100,000. Traveling by plane through Atlanta? Chicago? Dallas? Just changing planes and going through the airport, getting to your destination: another 20,000 souls each trip. Do that for 50 years, that is 1,000,000 souls. We are nearing 2 million souls and I haven't factored in churches, moving, attending large sporting/entertainment events, parades.
So, as you can see one life truly does impact millions of other lives, and those lives touch millions more.
Why did I ramble on and on about this? I have no easy answer. I was just curious as to how many souls I have encountered in my journey through life so far, and how many more will I meet on the way. I have seen a President, governors, actors, athletes, coaches, army generals, and even met Jeff Foxworthy in person (in his UGA private box). Almost all have been nice without fail. But, to all the people who have smiled at me in passing, held a door when my hands were full, or simply said "hi" one morning, they have made an impact on my life too. So, all this rambling to just try to say, you matter to so many, and you can make a difference in this world. It doesn't take much sometimes. You don't have land a doomed plane safely on the water to matter.
I am sure somebody, somewhere has done a much better job of saying all this. This is just what happens when my brain gets tied in knots on a subject sometimes.
As I began to think about this over the past week or so, I mentioned my thoughts to a friend to see how they would envision trying to determine such a thing. To my surprise, I not only got their feedback, but I got a story to affirm my entire thought process to boot. Let me share their story before getting back to my premise, I think it sets the table well.
My friend actually smiled at me as I asked the question aloud and explained my reasoning, and here is why. She told me of a time when she worked as a cashier at a grocery store. As you can imagine she came in contact with many people from all walks of life, and all sorts of personalities. One day however, as the weather outside began to turn stormy, she said she had been talking to her current customer as she rang up the items. She did this with most patrons, but this day a lady behind her current customer interrupted, rather rudely and asked if she could "hurry it up." My friend said she certainly rang up her items as fast as she could to get this rude woman out of her line and out of her life. I don't think she got the smile and the "come again" as she left.
But, as fate would have it, a few days later, she ends up back in my friend's line. This lady sure made an impression, and my friend could not resist. She politely asked, "Are you in a hurry again today?" The wind left the lady's sails. She felt terrible. She apologized profusely as she paid for her items, explaining why she had been in such a rush. She had left her kids at home alone for the first time to just run to the store for a few things. During the drive to the store, one of those great Florida thunderstorms from nowhere sprang up, and she knew her kids would be scared and alone. (Oh yeah, this is before cell phones were standard). So she was rushing to get home to them.
Anyhow, over the next few weeks and months, the lady continued to get in my friend's line and they slowly got to know each other. After this went on for awhile, they became friends, and even good friends. So my friend truly understood my premise, you never know how much a life can change from a simple smile, "hello", small acts of kindness, or even being rude.
Now, I should probably stop here. But, now I had a story to go along with my notion. My idea is terribly crude in design and scope (since I am doing this myself, not using detailed statistics and analysis skills, just some baseline logic and simple math). Okay, so now I ask again, how many lives does one life touch?
Before I try putting some numbers together, I will take you through the motions of just imagining the list. As you will see, this number is probably much larger than you might think at first. I am just going to try and give you a glimpse of the results.
You start with the easy ones: family. Obviously many of them will come to see the newest member, and it doesn't take long to see the numbers begin to grow. They will probably look to tell others about the new member of the clan, and maybe show pictures to their friends and co-workers. Even though you are not directly talking and visiting with those people, their lives are being "touched" by yours. You have the hospital staff, the pediatrician office and staff. Now, think about neighbors, people in the mall, grocery stores, baby stores, working as the mall Santa, maybe at the day care. We haven't even reached Year 1 yet.
How about church, restaurants, WalMart, in line at the library, waiting in the lobby somewhere. If you travel, there are hotel staff, maybe people in an airport, or on the plane.
Now start to think about getting older. Maybe day care, more trips to the mall, WalMart, the grocery store, Starbucks, more travel, maybe a move so we have new neighbors, or maybe they moved? A dentist office enters the discussion. As you think older, you ponder elementary school. You have classmates, teachers, staff, older kids at the school, in time younger kids at the school, those other kid's parents who will see you at school activities, more trips to the mall, now a dentist and his office staff, and before long, after school sports or activities (scouts?). Add those kids and their parents.
Parents divorce? Get Remarried? Siblings? Their friends? Now start to ponder middle school, high school, more trips to the mall, more travel, more activities.
Now you begin to see how the thread of one life can weave through much of the world. Do we make a lasting impression on all of these lives we come across? No. But what if you simply are kind and smile one day, or say "hi" when someone has had a bad day. That is still an impact.
Take into account college, jobs worked, parties, football games, other social events, dating, those families, a job while in school. Then your career starts, and you have job interviews, hopefully some travel, maybe you move to go to school and again when you get your career started? There will be work functions, travel, training classes, reunions, and the list keeps going.
Keep in mind, I took the idea in a broad scope, by simply touching a life, it does not mean a long friendship grown over the years, it could simply be a relative showing a picture of you to some friends at work from your birth, graduation, or trip overseas. Just think about how many faces you have seen in your life, add to that the notion of your parents/friends/family/co-workers/church members/classmates maybe hearing a story about you, seeing a picture of you, talking about you, and you can come to realize the number is in the realm of hard to imagine.
Just to say I gave it the old college try, I came up with a number. I figured a trip to a store every week, the mall 10 times a year, 1 trip by plane, several by car, eating out 3 times a week, and changing jobs 10 times in a lifetime. College at a big university, and average suburb size schools, since that is where I grew up. Ready?
Assuming you don't move until college, and only a few times in life (obviously not a military family). I figured 200 people per mall visit, living 80 years, 160,000 people. Weekly WalMart and grocery runs, say 100 different people each week, 5200 a year, 416,000. What about restaurants? Say just over 50 per visit, 3 a week, only as an adult, still another 10,000. All those kids in all those schools, their siblings, parents, your sports team/activity friends? Another 100,000. Traveling by plane through Atlanta? Chicago? Dallas? Just changing planes and going through the airport, getting to your destination: another 20,000 souls each trip. Do that for 50 years, that is 1,000,000 souls. We are nearing 2 million souls and I haven't factored in churches, moving, attending large sporting/entertainment events, parades.
So, as you can see one life truly does impact millions of other lives, and those lives touch millions more.
Why did I ramble on and on about this? I have no easy answer. I was just curious as to how many souls I have encountered in my journey through life so far, and how many more will I meet on the way. I have seen a President, governors, actors, athletes, coaches, army generals, and even met Jeff Foxworthy in person (in his UGA private box). Almost all have been nice without fail. But, to all the people who have smiled at me in passing, held a door when my hands were full, or simply said "hi" one morning, they have made an impact on my life too. So, all this rambling to just try to say, you matter to so many, and you can make a difference in this world. It doesn't take much sometimes. You don't have land a doomed plane safely on the water to matter.
I am sure somebody, somewhere has done a much better job of saying all this. This is just what happens when my brain gets tied in knots on a subject sometimes.
Comments
Post a Comment