Everything Is Temporary
Last night I was bored at work, and no one was in the store, so I decided to organize the colored containers that our change comes in. Most of them are grey, but we have a few blue ones, and I hate for them to just lie scattered randomly. I usually just make a repetitive pattern out of them and move on to something else, but last night, I decided to stack all the tubes in a pyramid and then organize them so all the blue tubes would (if I had numbered each of the tubes, starting at one and stretching on to forty-four) fall on prime numbers.
That's right, I organized change containers into primes BECAUSE I WAS BORED. And then I sat and examined the pattern, because it was beautiful. It looked like music.
I realize that no one who works with me at the store would ever recognize what sort of pattern I created; I'm fairly certain that most of them couldn't name even five prime numbers, or could tell you what a prime IS. I was getting all giddy yesterday because classes were starting soon (today), and I was excited for my metaphysics class - and they all just patted me on the back and were excited because I was excited. Which is enough for me, I suppose, to be surrounded by people who like me and accept me, even if they can't have an in-depth conversation regarding the ontology of being with me. That's fine - but I refuse to apologize for one single part of who I am, or feel lessened because it's not who they are. I like to think that I represent myself fairly well, at least on a superficial level, to everyone I meet. I share my passions with people, and I don't change from group to group to group.
The thing is, I've heard some people apologizing for who they are, or for who they like, or for what they believe. There needs to be more acceptance - on all sides. It wasn't until I took this job that I became okay with people who just...don't know stuff. For instance, in no way does it bug me that none of my coworkers would know what a prime number is; I love them anyway.
So maybe that's what I'm supposed to be learning right now.
That's right, I organized change containers into primes BECAUSE I WAS BORED. And then I sat and examined the pattern, because it was beautiful. It looked like music.
I realize that no one who works with me at the store would ever recognize what sort of pattern I created; I'm fairly certain that most of them couldn't name even five prime numbers, or could tell you what a prime IS. I was getting all giddy yesterday because classes were starting soon (today), and I was excited for my metaphysics class - and they all just patted me on the back and were excited because I was excited. Which is enough for me, I suppose, to be surrounded by people who like me and accept me, even if they can't have an in-depth conversation regarding the ontology of being with me. That's fine - but I refuse to apologize for one single part of who I am, or feel lessened because it's not who they are. I like to think that I represent myself fairly well, at least on a superficial level, to everyone I meet. I share my passions with people, and I don't change from group to group to group.
The thing is, I've heard some people apologizing for who they are, or for who they like, or for what they believe. There needs to be more acceptance - on all sides. It wasn't until I took this job that I became okay with people who just...don't know stuff. For instance, in no way does it bug me that none of my coworkers would know what a prime number is; I love them anyway.
So maybe that's what I'm supposed to be learning right now.
posted by juxtaposer at 12:56 PM
2 Comments:
Have you tryed banking?
I made a little picture sort of thing with lines and boxes representing the primes up to 100 to see if they look like music. They do.
Post a Comment
<< Home