I write this on Pi Day (March 14th or for the uninitiated 3.14 day). Everytime we come to this time of year I think about the string of days that lie ahead and get a little gleeful for their numeric pattern
March 14= Pi Day
March 15= Ides of March
March 17= St. Patrick’s Day
To Infinity and Beyond
It was hilarious trying to explain Pi day to my 5 year old. Perhaps even more hilarious with her parents trying to remember their 10th grade geometry.
“Is it 2πr or πr2?” (sorry this blog format really doesn’t want to do superscript numbers)
In the end, all that mattered was the fact that we said pie…so that meant somehow there needed to be dessert!
Pi is this almost mystical number in some ways. We chase after the infinite by using a constant. There’s something divine there…one would say theological even. I enjoyed the poetry offered by an article on Pi from the New York Times
In every field of human endeavor, from reconstructive facial surgery to the simulation of air flowing past a jet’s wing, billions of tiny, discrete elements stand in for an inherently smooth and analog reality. It all began with the computation of pi. Pi represents a mathematical limit: an aspiration toward the perfect curve, steady progress toward the unreachable star. It exists, clear as night, with no end in sight.
-Steven Strogatz
So we celebrated today with round-shaped desserts and called it good. Thanks Archimedes!
Caesar (The man, not the dressing)
Friday is March 15, the day known as the Ides of March, the day in 44 BC, first Roman emperor, Julius Caesar, was assassinated by the Roman senate. Along with 60 co-conspirators, some of Caesar’s closest ‘friends’ were in on the plot.
In some ways this day marks another constant….our brokenness. It’s humanity’s drama that leads to usurping power, craving domination and dictatorship, and the acts of betrayal and aggression. The drama that took place on the Ides of March seems to repeat itself on the world’s stage over and over again.
Come on Patrick!
And then March 17th brings us St. Patrick’s Day. A day where we wear green and voluntarily eat green things that SHOULD NEVER BE GREEN…like bread, bagels, and beer! All in the remembrance of the man of God known as Saint Patrick who in the 5th century, among other legends and accomplishments, brought the Christian faith to Ireland and explained the doctrine of the Trinity to the locals. Enjoy the video below.
The Unchangeable Constant
But I skipped over a day in that string of days. March 16…or 3:16, which is shorthand for many Christians who use this number to refer to an important Bible passage.
For God so loved the world that he gave his only Son, so that everyone who believes in him may not perish but may have eternal life.
-John 3:16
In the string of days that begin with a numerical constant that reaches to infinity, I find a sense of peace that it includes a day where I can be reminded of the infinite love of the God who loves me constantly. And this love reaches beyond the drama unfolding in my own Ides of March as well as love reaching through the giddy and silly things we do on that day we wear all green.
Some things are constant. Pi, the longing for dessert, and the need for love.
I hope you can enjoy and take pleasure in all 3.
(As I heard once from a saint, good things come in 3s).
