If today is average,
153,424 people will die
and that's just on this planet.
We won't know any of them,
if today is average.
A tiny few will be named
in the local obituaries,
strangers to us,
if today is average.
Let every one of them
be celebrated and remembered
by those who knew and loved them.
And let us love those we know,
just as You know and love us all,
You who call us home.

Photo of walls of skulls and thigh bones, Paris Ossuary, France
by Danny N. Schweers; photo copyright 2007; prayer, 2011.

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COMMENT:
Ian McEwan, in his 2016 novel, Nutshell,
estimated that 105 people die every minute.
That works out to 75,600 people dying every day,
half my estimate, but not significantly different.
See page 125 of his book, four pages into
chapter 13.