Captain's Phlog 2020.03.27 _____________________________________________________________ NOW: Is today Thu... No. Friday. Yes, today's Friday. We've been 'Hermiting' since last Tuesday - St. Patrick's Day - and at this point I can't really tell you what day of the week it is, or the date for that matter, without referencing some form of digital device. If you don't 'X' off days with near religious devotion a wall calendar is useless. SMALL DATA: For those of you playing along at home, preliminary results would seem to indicate that a household of two middle aged persons eating a balanced diet containing recommended levels of fiber use a roll of 1000 sheet single ply toilet paper in 4.5 days. ------------------------------------------------------------- -+- WHAT DUNBAR'S NUMBER MEANS TO ME -+- "If only one man dies of hunger, that is a tragedy. If millions die, that's only statistics." -Stalin In the Grand Scheme of things each of us is equally important. Upon my passing, the dust I leave behind will be indistinguishable from yours. Or if you like, my soul will be measured on the same scales as yours. I feel I need to make this point clearly in the offing lest what unfolds in the coming paragraphs smack of elitism or narcissism. Too, I'm deeply thankful for your stories. Your phlog posts add depth and color to my life. Your troubles and successes broaden my outlook. Your technical expertise imparts knowledge. I share many of your fears. I respectfully recognize your difficulties and celebrate in some small way your triumphs. That said, I can care for you no more that I would for a character in a favorite work of fiction. You might as well be Pierre Bezukhov or Samwise Gamgee. (( I was just struck by how this is like the weirdest "Dear John" letter ever )) It's my belief that this is a Truth, not unique to me. It's at the core of each and every one of us and our failing to recognize this is a big-ass pea under our mattress. My dear disembodied electrons, I give you Dunbar's Number. [1] Explained colloquially, it is "the number of people you would not feel embarrassed about joining uninvited for a drink if you happened to bump into them in a bar". Anthropologist Robin Dunbar found this to be ~150 persons. There is a competing value proposed by Bernard-Killworth of ~230 or so. I'm not married to the former. The latter still makes my point. I am aware of the criticisms of this number. I dismiss them, not out of hand but this entry shall not ramble into those reasons! Let's call this value (where 300>n>100) one's Village... or Clan, or Tribe. I prefer 'Village' because it sounds more inclusive and less in-group/out-group to my ears. The persons in your Dunbar Group are not fixed over time. Like a Village, people come and people go. Some are born into it, some will die, and some are run out with pitchforks in their wake. It's all part of the pageant. Has it taken you one minute to read up until this point? In that time an estimated 105 people have left this earth. [2] Were a great writer to turn those life stories into a book would we weep? Certainly. The human pageant is compelling. Turn to the Obituaries in the Podunk Weekly Shit-rag and select one at random. Were they a decent person? Did they live a good life? Did they touch people? Likely so. Will you attend their wake? No. Enough of this! I've no doubt you see my point. "Global media tugs at your heart strings to sell advertising and for no other reason." -Me This, at long last, is my point. Media, both Social and Institutional, sets our spirits adrift. Our brains, set in paths ancient even when the concept of 'Human' was minted, have not - could not possibly - adjust this BIOS level programming in the blink of an eye that is the 'modern' epoch. We are able to truly care, deeply and successfully, about our Village. The sensitivities we develop from a more cosmopolitan world view must certainly inform our better natures but it's a trap to not see them for what they are and when we allow them to hobble our true communal spheres. ____________________________________________________________ May you have the strength to care for those you love. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dunbar's_number [2] Not counting alien abductees or cosmonauts.