“Measuring Life,” thoughts by Daniel Holland
How to Measure
Life is measured by a watch and a ruler.
By the way, what time is it?
How to Measure
Life is measured by a watch and a ruler.
By the way, what time is it?
Perched on the end of faded green roughened seesaw. Roughened by sand poured over the board. I went up and down, then suddenly stopped. Stopped in midflight by a girl child turned woman. She said, “Here I am!” with her eyes. She made the sand feel solid.
Should I write a story with big words that pays big money? Or, should I write this story that is worth only five cents but makes sense to me?
Walking Over Water Stick falls off oak tree in winter’s bare delight. Thin stick over deep water, chilled water. “Courage!” I say to my bare tingly toes.
Through the enchanted forest of postcards I project frames to each picture of time and space. I can control what I do with time: most of the time. But what about an afternoon of road construction delays? Or, I’m waiting in line at the grocery store and the cashier says, “Price check!” Or, I’m waiting…
Hey Man, this weird thing happened yesterday down at the vegetable stand I own. When they fertilized the field in back of my stand, the field flooded. The water rushed into a hole in back of the cabbage bin. Man, was I bummed out when I saw that! I didn’t want to throw away the…
LEARNING TO CRAWL — When I was little, I liked crawling and was able to crawl really fast. All the big people towering over me kept trying to get me to walk and stand up. The only time I would stand up is when no one was around. Crawling was my favorite way to get…
Daniel, how should we measure life, do you think? If not by a watch and a ruler? If not by things that we can quantify, how should a person’s life be measured? I know you are poking fun at this way of looking at progress and achievement, but I’m curious about what you think.
Life is measured by some with watch and ruler…but by others it is measured perhaps by laughter, sunsets and ice cream cones.
Perhaps the best measure of life is losing track of measuring at all. Ya know, when you’re into whatever you’re into and hours have flown by with no watch or ruler needed.