Time
Time is the only truly continuous parameter in life (that statement isn’t accurate but to discuss it would require me spewing a lot of physics so just ignore it you know better and accept it if you don’t).
Yet we like to setup discrete intervals to make sense of time. From the short lived second to the not so short lived year. Come to think of it there is no difference between the 31 of December and the first of January as far as time is concerned but to us it’s a new dawn and in some cases a beautiful dusk.
I think we need the distinction to quantify our lives from one moment to the next. To understand a short segment of a continuous tale. How else do you count your blessings and set you goals. Living without this self made checkpoint would essentially make is less human . Imagine waking to head to work without any weekends or holidays to look forward to. You get a break only when you feel tired and you go back to work after that. You don’t plan for the next year/month/day/minute as the concept doesn’t exist. You are what you are at that instant and nothing more , there is no hidden desire to change and make something of your self as change can only be understood as a function of discrete time. It sounds like a scary sci fi movie but a bit of it seems so familiar. I think the older we get we move ever so slightly towards this zombie like state. So to all you would be zombies take this moment to reminisce about the past and fanaticize about the future. That’s what makes us human , this quintessential urge to move towards a brighter future!