January 1, 2025: The Pi of Life

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“‘Contrariwise,’ continued Tweedledee, ‘if it was so, it might be; and if it were so, it would be; but as it isn’t, it ain’t. That’s logic.’”  Lewis Carroll

I think it would be very foolish not to take the irrational seriously.  Jeanette Winterson

Nowhere are our calculations more frequently upset than in war.  Livy

Bonus Feature: Tired of me? There’s a ChatGPT translation at the end of the post.

Like Pi (π), life is irrational—as in both are non-terminating, even if it is true an embodied life has a terminus. However, the word irrational is a misleading as it assumes it is the opposite of being rational.  Irrational is not crazy nor the opposite of rational—it is simply different from rational.

Rational (logic) has been seen as the way to avoid going nuts and engineering nothing but sandcastles.  But logic is only one tool with many users, most of whom haven’t read the what-is-a-tool manual (I’m still reading it). It can be rather irritating to find one’s go-to tool, supported by consensus, is being misused, much less to realize the potential lemming-effect of a consensus agreement.  Still, tools and consensus (also a tool) are important, as is a shovel, but there is more to do than just dig holes.

Facing life and solutions as having a terminating quality can be upsetting, especially when we’ve been taught that eternity—a non-terminating state—is where we’re headed and that’s heaven or hell, or maybe limbo. We’re supposed to believe eternity is only about a static existence as opposed to the freedom to move back and forth across thresholds?  Hmmm.

I’m fixing a hole where the rain comes in and stops my mind from wandering where it will go.  Paul McCartney and John Lennon

Speaking about being creative (it’s not that bad a segue, even before the quote), I am still having trouble allowing the muse to inform me. And I love musing.  But my thinking/feeling is that I’ve got to get things right before I can sit with the muse.  The result is I’ve often lost my sense of presence as I am constantly interrupted by remembering the to-dos of a non-terminal list.  Too much discipline, though I’m fooled because I think of myself as too lazy. I think I hear the muse telling me that’s why there are doorways and thresholds and creation—try moving across them instead of believing there is only backwards or forwards, when there is only now.  After all, consciousness can go far more places than our physicality, though both live in the present whether we realize it or not.

Speaking about a new start, may the New Year bring the freedom we all want, but often poorly manifest in our clumsy attempts to find what is already there for us.

ChatGPT translation in two bumper-sticker forms:

Life’s not about getting it right—It’s about letting your mind wander. (Also, it’s okay to be irrational!)

Life’s Like Pi: Non-Terminating, Irrational, & Full of Freedom — But Only If You Move Across the Thresholds.

ChatGPT translation of the post as a Norm McDonald story:

Alright, alright. So, I was thinking the other day about… Pi. You know, the number. Yeah, you probably know it. The one that never ends, like… you ever think about that? Pi is like the life of a man who says, “Oh yeah, I’m gonna get everything together this year,” and then, uh, next thing you know, it’s December again and he’s still eating cereal out of the box at 2 PM and wondering where it all went wrong. Pi’s irrational, see? It just goes on forever, never really, uh, making sense. Like a guy telling you about his diet plan, and then—poof—he’s at the all-you-can-eat buffet again. There’s no final answer, no solution, just…more pie, I guess.

But here’s the thing—people call it “irrational,” right? But that’s not exactly the right word. See, “irrational” sounds like something’s wrong with you, like you’re crazy. But no, it’s just… different. It’s like comparing your brain to a blender that won’t turn off. You know, sometimes you think you’re making a nice smoothie, but next thing you know, the blender’s just spinning all the food around, and you’re like, “Hey, wait a minute, is this… is this gonna end?” But it doesn’t. It just keeps spinning. Same thing with Pi. It goes on forever.

You know, life’s like that, too. It’s like, we all have this idea, right?  Like, you’ve got your plan, and you’re gonna make it all work, and in your head, you’ve got this neat little timeline—like, you know, the big ending. But that’s not really what life is. Life is more like… well, it’s like one of those big, messy spaghetti dinners. You know, you start eating, and the sauce seems to go everywhere, and you’re like, “Hey, is this part of the plan?” But the truth is, the plan can be a mess. You know, like sometimes a mess is the plan.

I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but when you get older, you start thinking about freedom a lot. Everybody wants freedom, right? But you can’t just run wild without any rules, or you’ll end up, uh, I don’t know… naked on your neighbor’s lawn at 3 AM yelling about the weather. So, it’s kind of a balancing act, really. You need the freedom to move around, but you also need the discipline to, uh, not move onto your neighbor’s lawn at 3 AM. It’s tricky.

And then there’s trying to be creative, right? You know, the muse… it’s like, hey, I’m trying to be creative, but then I get distracted by a list of things to do. You ever get one of those lists? It’s like, “Oh, I’ve got to call my mom, I’ve got to buy groceries, I’ve got to do… uh… everything else.” The muse is like, “Hey, dude, don’t worry about the list!” But I’m over here like, “Yeah, I’ll get to you when I finish the list,” and so the muse just kinda… sits there, like a frustrated dog waiting for you to play fetch. But I’m too busy doing “important things,” and the muse is like, “Well, good luck with that.”

See, this is the thing. We’ve all got this idea in our heads about how life is supposed to work. We think we’ve got it all figured out—”I’m gonna do this, and then that, and then boom, final answer.” But, no. It doesn’t work that way. Life’s got its own rhythm, its own mess. You’ve got to accept the fact that sometimes, things just… don’t make sense. And that’s okay! It’s irrational. But that doesn’t mean it’s bad. It’s just different. And the more you, like try to control it, the more it slips through your fingers.

But hey, maybe that’s what freedom is. Not controlling, but just…well, managing to go with it. You know, not worrying about the end of the story, but enjoying the chapters along the way. Maybe we all just need to let go of the lists and the plans. Or, maybe not. I don’t know. It’s Pi. It’s irrational. Just like life.