Too much? Too little?

It is a hard line to think about a thought such as might be fluttered about by idle neurons along the lines of: Is too much too much? And how much is too much? And how much is much? As a species we love to give things values. The race thought it a miracle when we came up with 1 - 10, and hell, thought the world complete when someone realized they could quantify nothing with a 0. So everything we do is focused on this idea that there is some kind of universal value. We know the speed of light in a vacuum (notwithstanding blackholes, dust, or other bits and bobs that slow it down or speed it up), and we know how old we are individually (notwithstanding the bizarre desire to be younger or older than we actually are). And we can know the age of a tree by killing it and making sure it doesn't get any older whilst we count rings in the hopes of finding some great revelation. But how curious is it that as humans when it comes to the important things - the things that would actually be of value to have err... a value, we become as vague as a vague thing that isn't really there but could be if it was a Tuesday... in summer... and an afternoon, just after a rainfall, when Jupiter is fucking Uranus behind Mars. Or something like that.

Think of all the phrases - Too little, too late! Everything in moderation! Just a touch! Put in more effort. A pinch. A ball hair's width. Till it feels right. Apart from telling us absolutely nothing, we feel guilty for not going  that extra mile (after how many to begin with? And is it a land mile or a nautical mile? Platinum bar corrected or not?). But then as if that wasn't enough (which would be how much exactly?) we then complicate the issue by judging things based on random numbers. He ate six whole bars of chocolate. And? I want five teaspoons of sugar in my tea. FIVE? We take numbers and try to use them to arbitrarily control others actions, or influence our own. So eating five bars of almond chocolate is extreme? According to the people who are allergic to almonds more than 0 bars is extreme. According to someone stuck in an crashed plane on a glacier with only bars of chocolate - it's a rationing meant to last out a month of foodless hell. I want my hair short. How short? Touching shoulder length? Barely breaking skin?

And who comes up with things like: sleep with 10 women in a week and you're a slut. Sleep with 1 all your life and you're faithful. Science has proven that men are designed to sleep with as many women as they can afford to keep alive. Women are designed to trick all men who sleep with them, that their seed spawned the baby which now needs looking after. By definition of species survival guide book rule 101 - sleep around, spread the seed, and survive. The race evolves a little and suddenly rabbits become monogamists with deep seated feelings of shame when they have a brace of bunnies with Bunty from warren 3B just down the drag. So why oh why do we need these silly rules?

And who chooses them? Well we do. We allow ourselves the become wrapped up in our own devices and end up wondering why the hell half our country can marry six women and be happy, and the other half can barely live with one for five years without divorce and alimony. Well it boils down to: One half has a different numbering system than the other... I say 10 is good, but 12 is bad. You say 4 is good but 6 is bad. Both decisions were made based on the idea of what 10 and 4 and 12 and 6 mean. 4 is lots compared to 1. 10 is little compared to a 1000, but huge next to 0.00001.

We don't really know what these random things are either. If I say picture 10 people. That's a good sized funeral by modern standards. Now picture your school hall during assembly. 500 people? 1500 people? Now picture a stadium of people. 50 000 people. That's a lot. And that's about as big as we can go. Our brains just pretend to be able to think of more. What's the difference visually (and here's the clue) between 10 000 people and 100 000 people? Nothing. So how small is a micron versus a nanometer? For that matter is a quark any bigger or smaller than a planet? Well depends on your point of view (clue 2).

So what we as humans do is look (clue 3) at one thing, and then compare it to another. And then we make shit up. If one Zebra eats this much grass, all Zebra should eat this much grass. Why? Because a system we have developed to help us work out how much stuff we're seeing kinda says so. Really... think about it... marry one person. Why? Because one is intimate and close. Really? But can't I love 5 people? No. Just one. Errr... why? Because everyone else does. Oh.

Numbers actually mean nothing. Absolutely nothing. We have some. You have some. More or less. That's all it should be. You want some wives, I want less. Or more. And that's where the judgement should end. And I certainly shouldn't be made to feel guilty because I want the most. Why shouldn't I have the most? Because we should share. What? My more than yours becomes equal to yours because ... err... the Simon says? Fat people have more clothing than thin people. They have more atoms too. Bigger people breath more air.

We see things and then try to work out how these things fit into our numbers idea. We work around things that can't or don't have numbers (lots, more or less, roughly), but we assign some kind of number-like idea to everything. Isn't that just a little foolish? After all, if I am assigning different random values to things, how can we possible agree? So then one of us must prove the other right or wrong. My five warriors fuck up your five thousand warriors... or something like that.

Perhaps it is time that we move outside the numbers game? And start to look at life in terms of less and more. Two simple little words that sum up thousands of years of mathematics. I am more happy to day than I was yesterday because I realized that all my worry about numbers was a waste of existence. And I am less likely to give a flying fuck about anyone who says I sleep too much or drink too little, or don't have long enough hair. I sleep more than some, but less than others. I drink less that some but more than others. And my hair is longer than some but shorter than others. Not a single solitary one of those statements is judgmental, a form of persecution, or a negative comment. All three statements are totally true. Totally accurate. And totally without ego, pride, or malice.

Doesn't that sound like a better place to be in? So for just a single 24 hour period try the think of the planet and all the amazing things in it, in terms of more AND less than yourself. There's the key though, the statements cannot be used in isolation. More and less. I have more money than some, but less than others. I am more happy than some, but less happy than others. Together they create harmony, singularly they create murder, suicide, and an end to the beautiful things...