The Fireplace Records, Chapter 25
Simple As: 0123456789...
In 2000, a young mother was teaching her 4 year old daughter every day about counting and numbers. The little girl could count to 10 using number songs/ditties, and knew the correct order from memory. She used numbered blocks and her fingers for counting and displaying quantities. If asked by her mother to pick out seven cookies from a jar she could do so accurately; and, knew that no cookies in the jar had something to do with zero. She could count backwards from 20, and upwards to over 100. She could sort quantities with a high degree of accuracy. She was learning to read and write numbers. She was, obviously, a bright four year old, and liked matters orderly.
In 2020, that same girl was studying mathematics at the University of Oregon in Eugene. Her learning at the age of four is not forgotten, just buried deep in the Mind Matrix of brain-language-skills-habits. She is now ready for "Mastery!"
Step by step, little by little, one by one, day by day, year by year our bodies work and play with things, and our minds play with languages and concepts. There is an order for learning, just like an order for numbers. Skills and habits develop and improve with long orderly sequences of practice.
Some sequences and patterns in our lives are rigid, fixed, set, established, formally ordered, and, as it were, "set in stone." Mathematics is like that. Orderly! Formal! Done just one correct way! Only one ordering: 0123456789 ...
Time is like mathematical order. The Past before the Future; 6 before 9. The Future after the Present; 6 after 0. The Present between the Past and Future; -34 before 0 and 8 after 0. April precedes May, and October follows September. These Nature-socially established patterns and sequences never change. We visually represent these ideas on a numbered clock or calendar.
We can interpret and organize our experiences via mathematics, one of the key foundations of modern science.
A Student's Considerations:
Some aspects and patterns in life are formally ordered and fixed. Learn them well to cope with your challenges in living with others.
Arithmetic is an essential skill in our lives in 2020.
Find the best "order" for your learning of some new skill or body of knowledge.
Reflect occasionally on your childhood experiences and upbringing.
Music, writing, and math all have components of fixed orders for optimal functioning; however, we can also be creative and think outside the box in most fields, but failures are more frequent when doing so. Staying inside the box is safer for people and cats.
Choose yourself, on practical grounds, when not to change some established order or rule, sticking to the tried and true; and, when to abandon old fixed views.
Some aspects of our lives rarely change, they are ordered and fixed (e.g., the need for sleep each day). Deal with the facts and move forward!
We don't need supernatural beings to bolster our insights as to the orders of our universe. The devil is not in bed with numbers.
Try to keep things Simple!
You will benefit from keeping a very orderly lifestyle of your actions each day!
On Your Marks, Get Set, Go (Bang!)!!! Simple as 1, 2, 3.
"Lord I'm One, Lord I'm Two, Lord I'm Three, Lord I'm Four, Lord I'm Five Hundred Miles From my Home" - Peter, Paul and Mary 1966
Related Links, Resources, References
Pulling Onions Over 1,043 One-line Sayings by Mike Garofalo
Subject Index to 1,001 Zen Buddhist Koans
Chinese Chan Buddhist and Taoist Stories and Koans
Fireplaces, Stoves, Campfires, Kitchens, Pots, Firewood
Brief Spiritual Lessons Database Project: Subject Indexes
Sparks: Brief Spiritual Lessons and Stories
Matches to Start a Kindling of Insight
May the Light from Your Inner Fireplace Help All Beings
Taoist, Chan Buddhist, Zen Buddhist, Philosophers
Catching Phrases, Inspiring Verses, Koans, Meditations
Indexing, Bibliography, Quotations, Notes, Resources
Research by Michael P. Garofalo
The Fireplace Records
By Michael P. Garofalo
Subject Index to 1,001 Zen Buddhist Koans
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