Pi

It's Tuesday, and I'm back at the daily grind. Day job and Patch.

While at the Montessori school this morning, I was making tea in the microwave next to the snack table in my classroom. One kid was sitting there wolfing down his breakfast eggs and jelly toast. While eating, he said "Peter, did you know you can eat toast with jelly on it?"

"Oh yeah, I do it all the time!"

With extreme jubilation, he dropped the fork and spit out bits of egg while he yelled, "ME TOO!!!"

I laughed, sifting my green tea packet, hoping for an ounce of caffeine to take effect within my zombie brain. My mind started to drift to the oil change that I would be needing to get later in the afternoon. I was thinking about my bank account, about the check I had given to Louie for rent, about how much I would have to pay for the oil change, when the same kid suddenly became sullen and serious.

"Peter, did you know that you can only count to a million?"

I started to laugh. "Really, is that the last number that you can count to?"

He nodded his head, jelly now resided on the sides of his mouth like the face of a sad hobo clown. "Yeah, that's the last number."

"Really? What about a million and one, a million and two, three, four, five, six? Infinity?"

He only shook his head. 1,000,000 was the last number. Everything past that was null and void. They were arbitrary.

I laughed and took a sip of my tea. The heat stimulated my stream of conciousness. I said aloud, "So, if you count a number higher than a million you're basically counting the numbers of God. They are too much for humans to comprehend and your head will explode if you speak those numbers."

The kid only swallowed down the last of his eggs, looked at me. "Your head will explode?" He took a look down at his empty dish. "Hey, I'm done, Peter!"

He got up to wash his dish and glass of milk with the look of innocent ignorance that only children can wear.


Nine Inch Nails -- "1,000,000"