Posts
Lucky Number 34, a photo by TheGiantVermin on Flickr.
When someone tells you that there is a “simple math” or equation that
will solve your problems, do you believe them?
Does the complexity of our lives and emotions, or our cities and
societies, really come down to a simplistic addition or subtraction? A
multiplication or division?
I don’t believe that anything worth having is “simple,” easily
calculated, or unambitiously won. In fact, I believe that things that are most
valuable in life are those that are most complex, hardest to find, least
calculable, and most ambitiously fought for.
It’s an oft-said mantra: there are
no easy answers.
No easy math.
Love is one example. If there were a formula, wouldn’t we all be
perfectly happy always?
Nature. If we really had the math, we’d never be wrong about the weather
forecast. But we are. All the time.
Choice. The best and most profound example of our humanity is our
ability to choose. And that choice is not formulaic. There is no ultimate set
of mathematical parameters that dictates how we make the choices we do. That is
what makes us special, rich, dynamic forces within our lives and in the lives
of others.
It is freedom.
But I know people that are fundamentally calculating. Everyone does. They
believe there is a math or science to everything in their lives; that they can
win or gain by exacting numbers; that they can estimate and weigh and maneuver and
strategize and conquer through cold calculations and leveraged facades. But these
people are the ones that ultimately lose. Because they can’t see the beauty in
their environment, they can’t understand love or nature or freedom. They only
understand their bottom line.
And that is tragic.
Mathematics can explain some things some times. But it can’t explain
most things most times. The important and the best things in life are the ones
we don’t count on, the ones we could never have calculated.
So no, I won’t ever believe that there is a “simple math.”
~ Aidan M.D. Ware
No comments:
Post a Comment