It is said there are only three kinds of people in this
world; those who are good at math and those who aren’t. I happen to be one of
the latter, so it is a bit surprising that I have come to look at life in terms
of mathematics, but I guess that’s just how it adds up, go figure. I believe in
four phases of life: addition, multiplication, division and subtraction. Here
is what I mean:
ADDITION
We come into life with nothing, no clothes, no name, no
bowel control—nothing, blank slate. Then we meet and add our parents, brothers
and sisters, Aunt Rosie and Uncle Horace and Rover the dog. Then we add
clothes, a name, and the all so advantageous bowel control. During this period
of addition our muscles develop strength and coordination, and our brains go
into high gear allowing us to engage in life skills like eating, walking,
talking. We add a personality, we add friends, teachers, classmates. We learn
to deal with different types of people and, to the best any of us can, relate
to the opposite sex. In the addition phase we add to that mass of living
protoplasm that was us all we need to be a functioning, contributing human
being. Addition takes us from nothing and provides us with the basics we
require to become the person we are.
MULTIPLICATION
Now we are all ready to go, but realize we don’t wish to go
it alone, so we multiply what is us by bringing in a spouse, partner,
significant other, mate, etc. and if that other person is physically capable of
multiplying, from one comes many. Then
comes the inevitable--house, cars and various jobs, careers and the new people
associated with them. Your children now have friends who have parents you get
to know and with whom you interact. Your life circle is multiplying every day.
Your social life is full of weddings, birth announcements and work parties.
Multiplication widens our circle and provides us with supplementary tools to
fine tune a productive life.
DIVISION
God, in his wisdom, has made it that children don’t stay
around forever. They go, taking their friends and the weddings and births along
with them. There may even be a divorce
or separation from the partner, significant other, or mate. In this division
phase you may separate from your job. The long anticipated retirement is at
hand. You disconnect from your coworkers and may even disconnect from your home
geography to make winters more palatable to your brittle bones. Division tweaks
the necessities of what you want out of your life. You begin to circle the
wagons.
SUBTRACTION
Life has given us the opportunity to live our potential in
the addition and multiplication phases, and helped us scale down during the
division stage. Now it appears to be “give back” time. We lose family members and friends. (This is
not as hard as it sounds because we also begin to lose memory and
comprehension.) Our skin and muscle tone, reaction time, patience, eye sight
and hearing are not what they used to be. Our basic skills like eating,
walking, talking take a beating. Overall health heads slowly south and here it
is again that damn bowel control thing!
In subtraction, we find ourselves circling one wagon.
Of course these four stages do not often appear separately.
They can, and most often do, occur simultaneously. (You could add a caregiver while
your health is subtracting.) We may all experience these events to one degree
or another in these fascinating times between birth and death. Something we
need to remember is not to wait to experience our potential or our dreams until
the subtraction phase. We will be much too busy trying to remember what we had
for lunch.
