A Master of Us All

Do not worry about your difficulties in Mathematics. I can assure you mine are still greater.Albert Einstein

This garden universe vibrates complete,
Some, we get a sound so sweet.
Vibrations, reach on up to become light,
And then through gamma, out of sight.
Between the eyes and ears there lie,
The sounds of color and the light of a sigh.
And to hear the sun, what a thing to believe,
But it’s all around if we could but perceive.
To know ultra-violet, infra-red, and x-rays,
Beauty to find in so many ways.

Two notes of the chord, that’s our poor scope,
And to reach the chord is our life’s hope.
And to name the chord is important to some,
So they give it a word, and the word is OM.
Graeme Edge, Moody Blues

euler_mosaic

There have been many times I have heard an individual say something to the effect: I hate (don’t like, don’t do) “math.”  Shame on our ignorant “math” educational system, but now with the Khan Academy there is no excuse for such a lament from our kids.

I always enjoyed “math” — hey, I am a nerd from the sixties.  But I “hit a wall” in mathematics in the second-year of college. And even modern “mathematicians” have to “specialize” because the “difficulties” of “mathematics”. Practically all believe that mathematics, even for the “mathematicians,” is too vast and large to now to “see” the whole elephant (so to speak).

In mathematics you don’t understand things. You just get used to them.
— John Von Neumann

Someday information science [in some form of Formatics] will encompass all of math and science, but until then:

The religion of Mathematics is a Master of Us All.

Except when in the 1700’s,
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The Danger of a Single Story

“Everybody has a story. And there’s something to be learned from every experience.”
— Oprah Winfrey

She would know how hard it is.

She wouldn’t assume the worse or just abandon things.

She warned us of this:  The Danger of a Single Story

Journalism’s weakness:  Hit and run investigative journalism.  Headlines and Magazine Covers.  Money and reflective fame.

Shallow and a single story.  Sometimes good, most of the time irrelevant, sometimes bad…

“Stories matter. Many stories matter. Stories have been used to dispossess and to malign, but stories can also be used to empower and to humanize. Stories can break the dignity of a people, but stories can also repair that broken dignity.”
— Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

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Tomboy

“I had to play. I had to find the heart of the game.” 

“She was a very good baseball player,” — Hank

Toni was a pro and “smooth,” — Ernie

Hank Aaron, some people have argued, is the best baseball player ever.  So Hank knew what he was talking about.

Mister Cub, Ernie Banks, one of the top baseball players in the 50’s, no doubt.

But she knew she was good, good enough to play with the best: including Satchel.

‘He was so good that he’d ask batters where they wanted it, just so they’d have a chance. He’d ask, “You want it high? You want it low? You want it right in the middle? Just say.” People still couldn’t get a hit against him. So I get up there and he says, “Hey T., how do you like it?” And I said, “It doesn’t matter, just don’t hurt me.” When he wound up — he had these big old feet — all you could see was his shoe. I stood there shaking, but I got a hit. Right out over second base. Happiest moment in my life.’ — Toni Stone.

Baseball.  For the love of the game.

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