by Kevin T McEneaney
Can you ever measure too many things?
Of course, not! Civilization itself
is based on the convention of measure.
Without secure standard there is chaos,
cheating, all kinds of clown finagling….
Our lives are based on rulers, scales, and clocks
that facilitate social cohesion.
We are still stuck with the monarchical foot,
while we have managed to trash the cubit
(distance from the elbow to fingertip).
The French Revolution brought us metric,
which is now defined by the speed of light.
In the U.S. we fear competition:
we cling to much less accurate units….
