The Language of Numbers

I’m a writer; a wordsmith; a sculptor of English. I love words. They can be used to paint pictures or evoke images in the minds of others. Words can be used to tell stories. Words can be used to construct ideas and convey them to others. Words can be both precise and imprecise. That’s their beauty.

It’s been my good fortune to learn a little more about another language of late…mathematics, the language of numbers. Unlike say, English, numbers relate to each other in very precise ways. Numbers strip away everything but the essential qualities of things, their units of measure.

When you are only concerned with units of measure you can ignore all other qualities. Color, texture, sound, smell, and taste are no longer considered…unless they are the subjects broken down into units of measure.

Units of measure involve individual things and groups of them; they involve length, width, depth, height, weight and so on. When one designates a standard for the units of measure involved one can begin to speak in the language of numbers. Coming to understand their relationships is coming to understand precision itself.

There is a beauty in the language of numbers that can’t be denied. There is a certainty that’s very appealing. There is an austerity in the language of numbers because they strip away everything but that which they address. Its relationships are clear and pristine. Knowing those relationships allows one who speaks the language to start with the known and find the unknown.

The language of numbers is rigidly logical; it’s rules unwavering. The universe is run by it and we can, quite literally, set our watches by it. Like any other language though, it is lost on those not conversant in it.

Admittedly, I’ve only scratched the surface of the language of numbers. I stand on the outside looking in, quite enviously, at those who are fluent in it. I can sense its beauty like that of any exotic language. It's musical to my ears but only a few of its utterances mean anything to me. It’s quite appropriate that the universe was written in the language of numbers. I am awed by the beauty of the universe. Its complexity eludes me, but on some level I sense that it's rules are really quite simple. I can say the same about the language of numbers. There is an old saying that chemists only talk to physicists and physicists only talk to God. They do so in the language of numbers. There have been quiet nights when the thought has crossed my mind that the language of numbers is the real Word of God.

Like the cabbalist, on a deep level I sense that the answers to the biggest questions begin with the language of numbers. In the beginning is emptiness, zero…and then there is one. From one comes two, and from the interaction of the two comes the myriad of all things. Simple as it seems, even this only floats on the edge of my understanding.

From nothingness…one. From one…two. From two…all. Hmmm. Sounds almost like A, B, C…
And to think there's a vast library out there waiting to be revealed!