About Jack & Math

When I was a little girl, long before I could read, my daddy Jack taught me to add, subtract, multiply & divide.  Of course, he used actual numbers.  It was a fun game. 

I did not think a lot about it, because my world, the entire world, was smaller & it was a fun game.

I suppose I thought every little girl’s daddy taught her to add, subtract, multiply & divide.

Those skills were a great benefit to me in my early school years.  I was a little math wizard.

Years later, during high school, my algebra teacher required me to show my work, to prove how I arrived at the solution.  

I was accountable for how I arrived at the correct answer, for providing proof of the solution.

And much of the time, I was at a loss.  Not because I could not think my way through it, but because I was stubborn & thought it a waste of time.

What did it matter how I got there?  I got there.  I gave the correct answer.  I solved the problem.  The solution was there.

Now, in my last year before celebrating six decades of this life, I realize that it does matter.

It most definitely matters how I got here, it matters how I arrived at the solution, it matters how I solved the problem.  It was not until I took college Algebra & later, Logic & Philosophy, that I finally was forced to succumb to the requirement of proving my work.

Forcing me to prove my work, to justify my solution, to hold me accountable in math prepared me for every paper I have ever written, for every thesis I have ever presented.

 

My father Jack gave me the love of problem solving.  My mother Jean gave me the love of words.  Both gifts, both parents, taught me to think.

This holiday season, I miss Jack as I have missed him every Christmas since he left us.

I cannot remember a Christmas when Jack did not sit in his chair, his own presents surrounding him, watching with anticipation & joy as everyone else opened their own gifts.

So, as I spend this gift of time with Jean, my thoughts are always with Jack & Jean & how so very much they are the reason I arrived here in this place & time, the last year before the celebration of my sixth decade in this life.   

And I thank them both for the gift of why I think.