Day 5 - 178 -- Still Counting

What is it that entices humans to count everything? The need to measure everything seems incessant. Is it part of some competition -- that need to break a record and be the top of the heap for some inconsequential reason? Is it to break one's own record? Maybe we do it for bragging rights. Counting, as a form of measuring, may help us to see progress -- some inkling of forward movement. Measuring progress or impact requires some mathematical contortion to determine if the phenomenon of interest is moving in a positive or negative direction  -- or maybe not moving at all.

As I've been working at culling the files, I have been counting the number of recycling bags I've taken out of the office. It is a meaningless number, as there is no record book entry that will be broken. I've seen offices that held much more than my meager archival nature has produced. While substantial due to nearly three decades of materials being housed there, I've seen offices that had paper piled over waist high in the whole office with a very narrow path from the door to the chair at the desk, which was also piled with paper though that was shoulder high or more. So, no way that I would match that record. And why would I want to? <smile>  I sometimes wonder if the counting is a way to keep me moving through the process -- as if to prove forward movement with the project goal. Or is it an offshoot of the anxiety that comes with change -- some type of OCD behaviour surfacing? I think it is an indication of the work being done -- almost like a reward. There certainly is no other tangible reward in store. I do know that I won't stop this counting -- at least not yet.

Lyrics that came to mind today involved a degree of counting. The melody sounds upbeat and happy, which took my mind elsewhere for a quick relaxing indie-pop break. Enjoy!

1 2 3 4 -- Feist