Don't know when I first realised that mathematics is a foreign country to me - but I suspect it was around the time I gave up on Long Division. If there ever was an answer to prayer, and concrete evidence of the existence of God, it is the invention of the calculator and the death of Long Division. True.
I remember getting a Detention in school way back in 1966, for not knowing my nine times table. (I know it NOW ... ) Fair cop, Mr Robinson, I WAS fifteen.
I had to do serious maths to pursue my interest in science, and the night I measured, correctly, the distance between the Earth and the Moon with two pieces of stick and a set of log tables, I decided that I would never say I was no good at maths ever again. Nevertheless, my relationship with numbers leaves me at ease with mystery, which serves my spiritual life very well indeed.
As someone who spent two hours tonight sitting with my daughter, working on her math problems, this post was very timely for me :-)
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