I am tired of being ruled by the numbers that surround me. For many women, the number on the scale determines our level of happiness on a daily basis. A simple number turns into a judgment on our value as a person. The clothes size we wear is so psychologically powerful, that sizes have been adjusted so that an old size 12 might now be a size 6, 4, or 2. And of course, if the scale or the size of our jeans does not do us in, we can always check our BMI.
And then, if these numbers are not demeaning enough, we can check our credit rating, bank account, or investments. Or, if we are still in school, we can compare our GPA to the other students, and wonder if these numbers will allow us to be accepted into our university of choice.
While we are measuring ourselves with these empty numbers, we are busy answering questions about our other numbers: phone, address, birthdate, social security, locker codes, and so many other identifiers. And if we forget even one, we wonder if early onset Alzheimer’s is encroaching our lives.
Yes, numbers are important, and honestly fun when part of games of chance and mathematics, like calculus (yep, just another game). However, numbers answer questions about time and space, keep score in the world of sports, and find ways to analyze and synthesize data. But in the end, they can never speak to our true value. And yet, we often use data as value judgments.
Somehow rather than being measured by the depth of our souls, the kindness in our hearts, our acts of compassion, or our cognitive ability and willingness to stay open to new ideas, we are judged by the size of our hips and our bank account. Rather than examining our history of honesty, we are judged based on an amalgamation of numbers that tell so little of our story. And nothing of our soul.
Our inner compass is more important than arbitrary numbers, digits and figures, quantities, and statistical machinations. The longings of our soul and the calling of our heart will more clearly guide us than any statistical analysis, and outweigh the importance of the size of our jeans.
Interesting perspective on numbers. True, data has its place, but it does not tell the truth of our lives.
MY having retired from institutional teaching (as opposed to continued life-experience teaching) has been a relief on many points. Your “numerical phrasing of our lives” hits it on the head. Where’s the humanity? In academia, the influence of a more on-line evaluation process resulted in uniformly set critique structures of checking a 1-10 score. These are then supplemented by another clicked “score” from a list of 10 pre-set responses has become status quo. This process now replaces in today’s world a verbal dialogue with the student; Ditto with the Faculty performance evaluations set at just three levels, in 1, 2, or 3 . Academia just adds to this saturated world on data we all now are required to exist in… just being numbers.
I rank this response as a #5.