Dear Anonymous,
Fascinating assignment...why don't you consider the Native American concept of The Long Body?
That is, a series starting with infancy ending in old age/death... I could not find this on the Internet when I searched some time back, but when I encountered the image some decades ago, the gradations were apposed against each other like dominoes, so it did indeed long like a long body...allowing us to stand back and see ourselves outside of time.