perspective

Here is a little perspective to start the week…

The figures in this post can be found in many places on the Internet. The little bit of research I did also lead me to Snopes, which is often one of the sources I check to either credit or discredit the occasional urban legend that makes it to my in-box.

Snopes rates this as ‘not quite’…but I find it a fascinating concept, nonetheless - and a significant reminder of just how fortunate we are […and by ‘we’... I refer to my immediate circle of family, friends, acquaintances, coworkers, and the vast majority of us in this country]. Pardon the mixed metaphors, but it seems that no matter how you slice it, we drew the long blade of grass. Please take a moment today to stop and be grateful for the wonderful life that we are blessed with. And...give someone a hug or tell them you love them...life is so very short!

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If the earth’s population could be shrunk to a village of precisely 100 people, with all the existing human ratios remaining the same, it would look something like this:

57 Asians
21 Europeans
14 from the Western Hemisphere, both north and south
8 Africans

52 would be female
48 would be male
70 would be non-white
30 would be white
70 would be non-Christian
30 would be Christian
89 would be heterosexual
11 would be homosexual

6 people would possess 59% of the entire world's wealth
(and all 6 would be from the United States)

80 would live in substandard housing
70 would be unable to read
50 would suffer from malnutrition
1 would be near death
1 would be near birth
1 (yes, only 1) would have a college education
1 would own a computer

...sort of puts everything into perspective, doesn't it?