When I was a teacher, I LOVED Pi day. 3/14 was my favorite day in the academic calendar (you know, after all of the vacation days). I lived for this moment, and my kids also knew it meant they would each be getting a miniature pie during class and temporary tattoos. I geeked out. My kids ate. It was a win-win for everyone.
The number pi itself…it’s an interesting thing. Irrational. For you non-math folks, it means it’s a number that can’t be written as a fraction* (which we call “rational numbers”). It doesn’t end nor repeat. It keeps going. Forever. (Forever-ever, forever-ever?)
Love is a lot like pi. It’s irrational. To rationalize it is to attempt to chain something that cannot exist within the simplifications of our world or even our vocabulary.
Love is marrying someone after courting for 4 months.
Love is marrying someone after dating for 9 years.
Love is forgiving someone after they finished the last of the ice cream.
Love is sometimes sharing a side of fries at a dive bar.
Love is the overwhelming tears of joy when you see your baby for the first whether birthed or adopted.
Love is listening to the same family stories your grandpa has told over the last few decades.
Love is repeating those same stories to them as their memory begins to fade.
Love is cheering on the successes of our friends.
Love is nursing them back to health after a bout of the stomach bug.
Love is knowing when it’s not going to work.
Love is working through despite the pain.
Love is dying to save our souls.
Love is in the hand holding.
Love is in our smiles.
Love is in our words.
Love is in our actions.
Love is an action.
Love never ends.
Despite all of the pain, all of the heartache that comes in times of conflict, all of the disgusting and annoying things that people do, we still keep them in our lives. Because we love them. Despite our best instincts, we do it because we do. Without need to rationalize it.
Love is irrational. The best things are.
Musical Inspiration:
“Love Will Change Things” by Sounds of Blackness
“Move Love” by Robert Glasper featuring KING
“Without Love” by Cece Winans
*Yes, I know we can use 22/7 but that is an approximation, just like 3.14 isn’t the entire number of pi.