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Zeroing in on the Practice

In the history of science
it took a long time for the concept of zero
to be accepted as something more than a placeholder.
Once it was, negative numbers were possible,
as well as arithmetic as we know it.

Visualize trying to compute sums in Roman Numerals,
and you’ll quickly see what a boon zero is
in our current numeric system. Very helpful!

So imagine, nothing is something, after all.
Confusing, isn’t it?
But conversely,
so much of what we think of as something
is actually nothing.

This is basically what I do for my job,
sorting the something from the nothing,
and vice versa, so it all adds up to multiply good.

Think about zero,
depicted as an oval lassoing emptiness.
It doesn’t matter how many of them you write down
or how many you add or multiply together:
you’ll still get zero.
It doesn’t make a difference how big or small
you write that symbol for zero
it’s still nothing, nada, zip.

Zero can be a bully, though
because it can trounce anything by multiplication.
Rumination on zero spawns and amplifies this effect
so even though one appreciates zero in math
one must scoff at life’s zeroes
not allowing them the upper hand
by consistently and objectively
reminding them of their native nothingness.

People call me, troubled by a whole bunch of little zeros
like bubbles drawn on a blackboard needing to be erased
or maybe they are fixated on an impressively huge one,
intimidating in bold font, tall and wide and imposing:
either cherished or scary.

But as we zero in on it,
all those claims must give place
to the infinite ever-presence of actual somethingness
and are banished, resolved, and filled to overflowing
in the powerful completeness of All.

Polly Castor
6/15/12

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