Worth

What are we worth?  What are our lives worth?  Is there some number – 1-100?  And how would that number be calculated?  Is Einstein’s life or the Dhali Lama’s worth more?  What’s more important – the heart or the brain?  Hearing or sight?  A leg or an arm?  The truth is, we are all part of humanity – one human race.  Just as each organ or limb is part of one body.  Each of us has influence on one another.  Each of us plays an important part.  Every life impacts other lives.  To erase one life would be no small impact on the world.  We might not see it easily – but who were the people who impacted Einstein?  Whose influences molded him and led him to be at certain places at certain times?  To be able to connect with certain opportunities?  And if those people didn’t have the people who influenced them – how would that have shifted how they influenced him?  Make no mistake – we are a web.  Tangly and sticky, at times – but a web, nonetheless.  Today, I will value myself – not for the raw, measurable contribution I make in the world – but for how me just being me impacts others, who impact others.  Today I will remember that my worth is far too vast to calculate.