Not all aphorisms are created equally.
Some aphorisms seem viable only until scrutinized. Take for example the old chestnut,
"Don't take any wooden nickels."
Your knee-jerk reaction may be, "No, never take a
wooden nickel. It's counterfeit and effectively useless as currency."
But when you further consider the concept of a wooden
nickel, the following thoughts may ensue, "I wonder what a wooden nickel
looks like? I think a wooden nickel would be a wonderful novelty. I could play tricks on my friends. I would
gladly pay fifty cents for a wooden nickel." Surely you would now forgo the real nickel to
take the wooden one in its stead.
"Don't take any wooden nickels" is now bad advice.
Likewise, "I'm a glass half-full kind of guy."
Really? A glass half full means you were
unable to fill it completely. You don't
have enough beverage! A glass half empty was once full, now partially
consumed. We have lots of beverage!
Then there's the concept of, "It's better to have loved
and lost than to never have loved at all." Even with further
consideration, it's hard to tell if this claim holds true. How would you know if loving and losing is
greater than not loving at all? There is
a direct relationship between loving in losing.
When you increase love, the pain of loss increases in kind.
If we set never having loved equal to zero, we must
determine if Love minus Loss is greater than zero. But how do you measure
Love? Love is the sum of intangibles
experienced during a lifetime, however short.
Love is remembering when you were young as we were headed
back to the house. I called for you but
you stopped, looked at me, then turned and did a running belly flop into the
seasonal stream running next to the house.
There was such joy in your wet face.
It was your love for all other animals. How when it was clear Cookie was spending her
last night on Earth, you laid by her side all night so she wasn’t alone. It was
when Jelly was a puppy who could fit in the palm of my hand, you doted on him
and made him feel welcomed. It was your look of hurt when a dog or cat or bird showed you hostility, a reaction alien to your nature.
It was your virtue. It was how after losing your patience
with the other dogs, you would later apologize with a lick to the head. How we
could communicate with just a look into each other’s eyes. How you took responsibility for securing the
property, with your morning "walkabout" the grounds.
It was how you scared the daylights out of strangers, only
because they didn't know the big baby you really were. How you would take
things from my pocket, or steal the cat's bed, or horse toys, just for the
attention.
It was your look that told me you couldn't fight the cancer
anymore and it was time to say goodnight.
It was us holding you on your last moments on Earth, so you weren’t
alone.
Can we put that into a mathematical formula?
Love equals virtue to the power of the intangibles.
L=Vi
