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In the fine print of today’s news, I happened across a number that had a strange familiarity. Mulling this current number of Americans killed in Iraq, it hit me with a sudden shock that this number - 1788 - corresponds precisely to the number of people I’ve been able to document knowing during the course of my entire lifetime.
So here’s a thought experiment for the heart: imagine a world absent of absolutely every friend, family member and acquaintance you’ve ever known. Everyone is integral to the whole. We might be a neighbor to one person, a co-worker to another, maybe a teacher, a parent or simply a peculiar curiosity. But no one is dismissible.
I am a collaboration - the sum total of my experience. Subtract my first grade teacher from the equation and I become someone else. Change the waiter who gave me a tip on where to camp on Mount Desert Island and my catalogue of peak experiences reads differently.
That is what is happening in Iraq - and elsewhere - millions of life equations are being recalibrated. The impact only appears diffuse.
The Thank You Project is my attempt to enumerate the inenumerable, to acknowledge with gratitude everyone who has made everything I know possible. The idea is to prompt reflection on the myriad defining connections that constitute a life. It’s quite a monolith to scroll, even for a so-called recluse.
Posted by mark at July 28, 2005 04:44 PM