When Size Matters

Spain and Portugal share a common border and in this fractious world, they are relatively good and friendly neighbors. So it was surprising when both countries measured their common border that they should come up with different numbers. After all, an inch is an inch, or perhaps, more appropriately, a centimeter is a centimeter. So how could this be possible? There were no disagreements as to where the border was between them, the line drawn between the two countries had long been established, so how could they come up with different numbers?

The answer has to do with the size of their rulers! The best way to explain this would be to bring the problem closer to home. Imagine if we had to measure the California border from Mexico to Oregon in inches. We will give our Portugese friends a simple 12 inch ruler and tell them to get started. We will give our Spanish friends a rulcoastline of California from Mexicoer that is exactly one mile long. It will also be marked in inches (63,360 inches to be exact).

Now imagine them working their way together northward from Mexico. The Portugese take their tiny ruler and measure every nook and cranny along the coast. The Spanish, on the other hand, with their mile long ruler, often must span small coves and inlets, unable to bend the ruler to the curved shape of the land. Mile for mile, the Portugese rack up many, many more inches.

It turns out to be a matter of perspective. Putting international boundaries aside, in the landscape of our lives, the rulers we choose to measure the things we have in common with others can clearly be critical to our findings. Whether it is success or beauty or skill or happiness (or sadness or failure or ugliness) it would seem almost impossible to compare ourselves and our lives with others given the obvious subjectiveness of our own life-sized (possibly slightly warped) rulers. Even if they are marked in inches.

Whatever standards we use to measure seem arbitrary at best when - especially in trying times - we make comparisons of our lives and the lives of others, wondering, when things happen, why us or why them? The unwieldy mile-long ruler some carry may be good for getting the job done quickly, but it fails to take in the complexities of daily living, others with their small 12-inch ruler, which measures the rich and complex details of life, inch by inch, get up close but must travel farther.

Each of us has our own ruler by which we measure the physical and not-so-physical aspects of life and we shouldn't be surprised to find, in the end, our own unique measurement.

Tim Bulone is an ardent observer of life on the swirling blue marble. He works at Davis Group Consulting and creates fine art and canvas prints which he likes to sell from time to time at http://www.MyFamilyArt.com He is an early morning pedestrian in Belmont Shore, where he resides with his wife and a variety of gregarious and charming pets.