The Measure by Nikki Erlick follows a group of people whose lives eventually intertwine. One day each of them receives a box along with everyone else in the world who is age 22 or older. Inside the box is a string, each of varying lengths. Before long they discover that the string represents the length of their life. As usual the government takes a crisis and makes it worse by constructing rules that people with shorter strings have to follow. Those in the military can only serve in combat duty if their strings are longer, short stringers are directed to desk duty. Researches started a database and were able to calculate an accurate date of death by the length of the string. Dating sites were separated into short-stringers and long-stringers and support groups popped up which were designated according to the string length.
My thoughts:
There were a few people who chose not to look in the box, although it wasn't a choice in North Korea. And once the length of life was revealed, people reacted daily to the constant bombardment from the government, media and friends. Instead of making the most of life, they were obsessed with the end date. It seems to me that there always has to be some division and pitting people against each other is the M.O. of the government with a divide and conquer mentality. In this case it was short-stringers, who were viewed as a danger with having little hope, and the long-stringers who didn't want to be associated with them. One thing surprised me was that apart from the Pope's speech at the beginning of the book, no one mentioned or turned to God or the church which I think is very unusual in the time of a major crisis.
The best way to reduce stress is to stay away from the divisive doom and gloom media and government shenanigans, watch only church sermons that aren't focusing on "End Times Prophecy" and surround yourself with optimistic family and friends. I for one wouldn't open the box!
