It probably really doesn't matter

This story may not make sense, the topics just sit a nerve as I thought about them.  I'm really not a morning person, more of a night owl.  I once thought as you grew older, you both went to
bed earlier and got up earlier.  I don't do either, in fact, I am sleeping less and it is often morning before I even fall asleep.  Sort of an odd ball maybe some would say, it probably really doesn't matter.

While listening to NPR as I motored down the highway, I heard the question: "how many trees are there on earth"?  I immediately thought the number one trillion.  The story was about someone or some group that wanted to plant an equal number trees as there were trees alive, but how many did they need to plant?  They first talked about a survey at some point in time that placed the number somewhere in the vicinity of a just north of 300 billion trees.  How could that be?  A billion seems like a lot, but my gut said not enough.  Then they discussed more recent estimates are about three trillion.  Three trillion, now that's a whole lot of trees... about 400 for every man, woman and child in the world.  That's also about half as many as there was at the beginning of human civilization.  Although as humans we cut down a huge number of trees per day.  I've never been greatly affected by the loss of a tree.  I thought all of this information was cool trivia, but nothing to do with my work or what I do, so, it probably really doesn't matter.

Then tonight, I saw a post on Facebook that sort of tied these and other thoughts all together for me, it was titled "you are not for everyone".  Not to the extent of trees, there are a lot of people living in this world...  how many do you actually interact with, either directly or indirectly?  There are gobs and gobs of information, papers, survey, statistics on what these numbers are.  For sake of this writing, let's say that in the big scheme of things, it's really not that big of a number...  whether you think it's 25, 100, 1,000 or 10,000...  compared to 3 trillion trees, it's not a lot.  Learn to be a good tree and be a positive influence on someone...  but not everyone, you can't do it.

As I read "You are not for everyone", I was thinking of the vast number of trees and the benefits they serve to every person on earth... then the relatively few number of people we actually interact with, and the enormous impact on our well being those few can have.  The two aren't related at all, other than to say it like this: if there is a negative tree in your life, go pick another, there are tons!  Life is way to short to be affected by the negative attitudes of others. As necessary, pick another tree... it really does matter.