“The measure of your life lies within”
One day at the same time throughout the world, everyone receives a small wooden box. Within each box is a string that foretells the length of the individual's life. The appearance of the strings is the first symbol to support the theme of interconnectedness and fate in The Measure. Everyone receives a string, regardless of who they are, and the strings also act as a connection between the characters that we meet. This interconnection is further illustrated in the commissioned sculpture called Strung Together, which depicts a tree of life made of hundreds of people's strings.
"Dear B,
No matter what happens, I still feel the same.
-A"
Amie donates a plaque with this inscription on a Central Park bench for her and Ben's 10th anniversary. This is also an allusion to another quote, one that initially brought them together. In Ben's original letter addressed to no one, he ponders a phrase that a man named Simon wrote to Gertrude, his betrothed, while he was at war. Amie answers his letter with her opinion, and this letter begins their link to each other. Their first date after Nina and Maura's wedding is in Central Park, where they notice the inscription on the bench, and it is also the place where Ben proposes to Amie.
But how could that possibly be true? Ben thought. That would mean the world had flipped around, like the ceiling above him, the humans now seeing from God's perspective.
While Ben is returning to New York, he notices the painting on the ceiling in Grand Central Station, which is said to be stars painted backward, displaying the view of the divine. At this time people are interpreting the strings as foretelling the length of someone's life, and having just noted the story of the ceiling, Ben can't believe that this could be true—that humans are truly able to see from God's perspective. But the reader already knows that it is in fact true, as we have learned about the strings in the foreword, thus creating dramatic irony.
“I watched a lot of people come to the end, and everyone around them kept begging them to fight. It takes real strength to keep on fighting, and yes, usually that’s the right answer. Keep fighting, keep holding on, no matter what. But sometimes I think we forget that it also takes strength to be able to let go.”
After everyone has left the classroom, Ben and Hank have a chance heart-to-heart. Ben tells Hank that he's been writing letters to someone he doesn't know, and Hank admits that his string is much shorter than that of the rest of the group—he's approaching death. Hank brings up the paradox of strength when it comes to death. Hank realizes that since death is inevitable, the real display of strength is being able to let go.
"It's not the length of life, but the depth of life. You don't need a long lifetime to make an impact on this world. You just need the will to do so."
Wes Johnson defends short-stringers by citing people in history who have lived short but very impactful lives. Johnson touches upon the central paradox of the narrative by revealing the nuance of the quote on the boxes—"The measure of your life lies within"—when he defines the measure of his life for himself as being his impact on the world.
"The canals, the gondolas, the dazzling masks.
The dire warnings, year after year, that the city was sinking.
The odds are against it, the water always rising. But still it stands...
A fighter"
Maura and Nina decide to go on a trip to take a break from the tension around them. Maura chooses Venice, and in her reasoning, she anthropomorphizes and draws a relation between short-stringers and the state of Venice. The odds are against short-stringers, especially when they leave New York for this trip, but they continue fighting.
"Last night, I looked at my own box for the first time in months. I didn't open it, but I reread the inscription. The measure of your life lies within. Sure, it's pointing to the string inside, but maybe that's not the only measure we have. Maybe there are thousands of other ways we could measure our lives—the true quality of our lives—that lie within us, not within some box. And, by your own measure, you can still be happy. You can live well."
In Amie's letter, she reflects on and questions the inscription on the box, evincing the book's theme of perspective. Amie says there could be multiple ways to measure our life, and measuring the length of the string is only one possible measure. Amie calls on Ben to change his perspective and be open to living well by his measure.
"Se il per sempre non existe lo inventeremo noi... 'if forever doesn't exist... we'll invent it ourselves'"
On Maura and Nina's trip to Italy, they visit the Juliet statue in Verona. Nina asks Maura to translate an Italian phrase. While we don't have control over our ultimate fate, the quote suggests, what we can affect is what happens in between. Later in the book, we learn that the marriage bureau is close to the building where birth and death certificates are issued. Though our time on earth is allotted to us (and thus "forever" doesn't exist), we can see this time however we want (invent our own "forever"). This connects to the theme of perspective.
"That's life!... Before the strings arrived, that was the chance anyone took when they got married, or when they had kids. There was no guarantee. But you still vowed in sickness and in health, not knowing which one you'd get, and you still promised till death do us part, with no idea when that parting would occur... But now that we have the strings, suddenly the risk that every couple used to accept has become so unimaginable?"
In Nina's fight with Amie, Amie is unsupportive of Nina's proposal to Maura because of Maura's short string. Nina points out the paradox of the change in how we view the age-old marriage vows in light of knowing how long 'forever' really is. The vow, in essence, is pledging our life to someone in the face of the unknown. We promise ourselves to someone until death does us part, not knowing when it will occur. Now, the existence of the strings is changing people's minds and making the idea of taking this risk unimaginable.
"When we think about the greatest love stories ever written, we aren't judging them by their length... But our story—mine and Maura's—it felt deep, and it felt whole, despite its length. It was an entire, wonderful tale in and of itself, and even though I've been given more chapters than Maura, her pages were the ones you couldn't put down. The ones that I'll keep rereading, over and over, for the rest of my life."
Nina gives Maura's eulogy and decides to focus on her life rather than her death. Nina uses a metaphor likening our lives to books with chapters. She highlights a different measure to measure Maura's life, supporting the theme of perspective, by showing that while Nina's life consists of more chapters, Maura's life was impactful and awe-inspiring. She lived an impactful life. She also highlights that a short life doesn't equate to a life that isn't whole or without depth. Rather, when she uses a different measure, her life with Maura was all those things and more.
