Just how many people are there?

There are, so many people in the world, that I simply cannot fathom it.

I know, intellectually, there are a LOT of people. I know its an ethnocentric mental limitation kind of thing on my part, but still, there it is.

Whenever I think of how my life goes, all the people I'm involved with on a daily basis; all the people I see on the street; all the people I see on TV, on the news; when I think of all those people having lives just like I do and just as complicated, or more so; well, it just boggles the mind. Doesn't it?

I notice this even more when I'm on on a plane, flying over an area I've never been to before. Or, when I'm on the ferry, headed into Seattle or back. Even more so, when I see the cruise ships are docked, mostly going to Alaska. Because, then are people on the ferry who are quite international. People who live just as mundane a life as I do, only on the far side of the planet. Swedes, Germans, French, Asians, Russians, who ever.

I find it, amazing. Don't you?

There's all these people who all have emotional lives. Intellectual lives. Spiritual lives (OK, some more than others, but that, on all points).

And what is the point of my bringing this up here? I don't know, really. I just think, we tend not to think of it that way very much. We are all so busy with our own lives, until a 9/11 happens in our town; or there is an economic failing that grossly affects us; or some mayhem befalls us, the levy breaks, the earthquake hits, a tsunami strikes our shores; then we relate with these people from other parts of the world that we typically only see on the news, walking around, looking distraught, staring vacantly... and so on.

The world, is a big place. And its getting smaller. I think, if more people would realize that, we'd have better neighbors. I know its not so much, you, or me, perhaps, but those in charge; in charge of the government, or, perhaps more so, the corporations. Maybe if we'd treat them better, think more of them when we are taking what we want, maybe not take so much, maybe have some more consideration for those we've raped, robbed and pillaged over the decades, and then, maybe, they would feel less inclined to kill us.

Relax. Its just a thought....