Billions and Billions

McDonald's once counted burgers sold, proudly posting the number on a big sign outside of each of their restaurants. It stopped when the number got too big. (Would people not believe that one-hundred and forty-seven billion, nine-hundred and twenty-three million, seven-hundred and fifty-six thousand, three-hundred and eighty-nine Big Macs, Quarter-pounders and delicious double-cheeseburgers had not been consumed, quelling the hunger of the masses?) Now the signs read simply, "Billions and billions sold"--how prosaic! So how may we count-- and post the number of souls in the world? Looking at it in cosmic time, souls are like fireflies, flicking their luminescence, on and off, on and off, a moment of brightness is a lifetime: a wondrous light show in that black and fecund sweet summertime evening we call eternity....