Can your computer count your blessings? Can you?

Do you count? Does your life count?

A priest once told me that I don’t count. But later, he asked me if I coded. Because, he said, I spoke English like a coder. I bet you can count. I bet you do count. This is a safe bet, because you were made in the image of God. But also, you are a man. Or a woman. So, therefore, you cannot count the same as God. But you can count as God counted through man.

Are you ready? Do you trust yourself enough to count to 10? Let’s try it. Maybe say a prayer first, though — just to be safe.

One. Two. Three. Four. Five. Six. Seven. Eight. Nine. Ten.

I wonder whether you did that right the first time. I didn’t. It took me the better part of four decades to learn this secret. Although it is widely known to any 4-year-old. You could try again. For yourself. With your fingers.

Did you do it?

It’s up to you, anon. But if you were to have done it, you could do it again at any time. Perhaps it could become a prayerful meditation. Do you know who else had ten fingers? Moses. David. Jesus. Constantine. Elizabeth I. Shakespeare. Do you, then, know them all like the back of your hand as you count?

It is simply not possible to care in a human fashion at scale.

You cannot know anything like the back of your hand when you are typing … or when you are reading on a computer screen. Try typing and reading what you type at the same time. I guarantee that you cannot closely examine the back of your hands as you type and read at the same time. Your mind is too limited. You can focus on one thing at a time.

This is the most profound digital communication I can provide to you right now, anon.

Do you get the pun? Digital. My hands typed this. You probably have two thumbs, too. This makes you human. But also, a monkey could do it. Some liar once said that monkeys with keyboards could eventually produce Shakespeare. Not even very high-IQ monkeys, banging out code to train large language models on everything that has ever been digitized, could produce anything with an ounce of the artistic worth of William Shakespeare.

Do you remember the Mayan Apocalypse? Did anything happen? (Of course it did. It was the end of the world as we know it. The end of the world actually comes every night when the sun goes down. When is the last time you saw a sunset?) The Mayans counted, too. But not just on their hands, under base 10. They also counted their toes and therefore had a base 20 calendar: 20-hour days, 20-day months, 20 of them. They were very superstitious about the end of the world, probably. At least, the Aztecs were. They would sacrifice children en masse to make sure the sun came up again the next morning.

But then the Aztecs' prophecy was fulfilled, and Cortez annihilated them.

This was right and just. I mean, what would you have done if you were Cortez? Cortez, probably, counted on his hands, too. Just like you. He, too, wore shoes. With closed toes. Can you count to 10 on your toes? One toe at a time? Probably not. But the Mayans probably could.

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Photo by Alain Jocard/Getty Images

They were grateful to Cortez for helping them exterminate the Aztecs. But then … they had to deal with the Mexicans. Poncho Villa. Not a nice hombre. And now the cartels. Not nice hombres, either. They treat men and women like they don’t count. Like they are only numbers. Little figures entered into Excel tables.

Do you work for a cartel? Probably. Most everyone is employed by a corporation.

Corporations are not people. They do not count on their hands, because they do not have hands. Sometimes they are owned by families. If so, they can be good. Very good, even, to their employees, who also have families.

Can you count the number of lives that depend on your life? You are asked to every year, by the tax man, who shall surely cometh every year until you are dead. And then he will tax you, too.

How many lives depend on yours? How many lives have you taken through your carelessness? Taken for granted? You must, necessarily, take for granted almost every human life you ever see. It is simply not possible to care in a human fashion at scale.

It has been said that humans cannot manage more than 150 relationships at once. That’s too big a number to count, really. If you are human. Which you are.

So try to count to 10 again. The 10 most important lives to you. Count on your fingers. Love each finger as though it were a loved one. If there are 10 you can love truly, you shall not suffer the fate of the Sodomites. Hopefully.