Reduction To Lowest Terms

 

01 October 2009

 

Too often, we regret for neglecting something presumed to be useful in the future since there is no direct or immediate need for such at present. This defines how we evolved to date. How people became so dispensable and indifferent is an entirely different story.

 

Let us take for instance the concept of parity which states that everything should be distributed fairly and evenly; giving to each what rightfully belongs to him. Justice then is a one-to-one correspondence. When one does not get his fair share, conflict arises.

 

Life is a mathematical existence regardless of the existence, or contrariwise absence, of numbers itself. In fact, people designed clocks, watches and chronometers, both digital and analog, to tell time and later let it rule their lives. Consider ourselves as elements of this mathematical world and our lives as a subset of all the existence in this planet and from there, we will see the magnitude and expanse of the undefined infinity.

 

A basic rule in the mathematical operation involving rational number tells us that fractions should be reduced to lowest terms such that the numerator and the denominator are relatively prime.

 

The question of how much or how much less the value of a thing is immaterial whenever life is reduced to its plain and simple terms. And from it we derive absolute and not relative value, just like time and distance where integers are always positive. But it also reminds us of a much greater truth that in figures and in real life, the quantity of inequality will always be greater that equality.

 

It is surprising to note that the basic elements of the earth operate on almost the same level as fractions. Fire reduces everything to ashes, wind to dust, as water dissolves and death causes decay. Everything will have to be reduced into singular, molecular or atomic level before finally it becomes part of the very element that consumes it.

 

Floods, even in friendships, happen in order for us to appreciate the bridges built, destroyed and restored which only shows how solitary this life really is. Every little act of reduction entails pain. And the sad truth is, pain is an essential constituent of human reality however acknowledged or neglected.

 

In this lifetime, however, it is not the wealth amassed nor the poverty endured but the maximization of it for greater human benefit that will count. And everything else will be prime and significant.