A while back, I ran across this Age Calculator and I decided to see how many days old I was.
From then on, I've tried to keep a vague idea of how old I am in terms of days, rather than just years.
It's an interesting exercise that puts each day in a unique perspective.
Meditating on this number brings up some insightful ideas...
I will never have another 8782nd day.
Damn, that's a lot of days.
Today is only one of many thousands I will see, but it is unique.
While today is number 8782 for me, there are some for whom today is their first; for some, their last.
I've also noticed that as days and weeks go by, the steadily accumulating total is an incentive to make more urgent use of my time. Suddenly realizing that another 50 days have passed makes me think, what actually happened in that time? The short answer is "not much." It can be somewhat unnerving to think about how little actually changes over these amounts of time. In reality, quite a lot has happened in that span. How many breaths? Hours slept? Meals? Meaningful exchanges?
I think I'll continue on this project and meditate for a few minutes each day on the exact number of days I've been alive.
I have a suspicion that there is a very good reason we don't view our lives this way. Using calendars to map large expanses of time is a mechanism to help us cope with the fact that each day is in fact unique, yet one of countless many. We'd probably all go insane if we thought this way all the time. Only one way to find out...
