Once again, I will start by saying I didn’t always love Math. I struggled with it, and couldn’t figure out how I would ever need it in a life of creative pursuit. Then I had children. Those children are creators in their own rights – with structure and form and spatial relationships. My kids build and design and Math is going to be something they will need on a daily basis in their lives as they unfold. I had to quickly learn to love it, so I could help them become all they want to be. I didn’t want them to struggle, so I delved in to learn the beauty of Math, and found myself quickly caught up in the romance of it.

Last night, my little Bean, my seven-year old, fell asleep with this book on his chest. It is filled with mathematical puzzles, geometric shapes, and some of the most poetic language about numbers I have ever encountered. It is a gift. It is set up in one page increments of inestimable beauty, like little devotions on number theory, full of reverence and awe and breathtaking revelations.

We kept finding the word Kiss in the descriptions of the solar system and the astronomical number theories behind the dances of the planets. Planets are said to kiss as they pass, the patterns the orbits create are referred to as harmonics and rhythmic kisses. He just thought of it as funny. I was on the point of tears.

There are metaphysical principles at play here, which are at once mysterious, haunting, and hiding in plain view.

I get that not everyone sees numbers on a page and understands that there is poetry, nuance and beauty swirling there simultaneously. I am just delighted that I found the way to appreciate numbers as more than objects to induce headaches. There are depths and reaches involved in the study of numbers that could take a lifetime to fully comprehend.