The relative size of things

The time we spend thinking about something often doesn’t match its importance in our lives. If we parked all our worries in a line, they would stretch to the horizon. When is the ‘eat by’ date of the yoghurt? Did I use the wrong title on the presentation? Should I smile more at the check-out assistant?

Anxieties follow us into the night. A common one is the “unprepared-for-exam” dream. We turn over the page to face three hours of algebra and then wake up in a panic. How often does that happen in real life? Often, I guess, if we’re lazy students. For the rest of us? It’s on a scale from very rare to never.

There are examples of other things that take up space in our lives. Here is a list of countries by population size. The United States of America has 332,639,104 people and is the 3rd most populated country in the world (after China and India). Indonesia is next up at 4th, with a population of 267,026,368. Whilst Indonesia has the equivalent of 80% of the USA’s population, it probably takes up less than 5% of the news. Yes, America is big. But it’s also an extrovert that talks very loudly.

Compare Indonesia to the United Kingdom. There are less than 67 million people on this little island — a mere 24% of the population of Indonesia. But the UK is someone who butts in on conversations — a little person that wants to be known on the larger stage.