Reunion and Ms. X

Current Music: late-night percussive firework booms

I could write a huge amount about my two or three reunions in the last two weeks: 10-year high school reunion, my sister's wedding (sort of a family reunion too) and a reunion with various friends from Montana. It was a lot like Alan Lightman's book Reunion. (NPR interview with author, reviews). Well, my reunions were happier events, especially those with old, somewhat long-lost friends from my undergrad. My sister's wedding prominently featured the infinity symbol, as did one of my own reunions: "C" showed me an exercise for developing concentration and focus by repeatedly drawing the infinity sign followed by a letter of the alphabet.. this is repeated 26 times, proceeding from a to z. Later this all inspired an analogy that cheered me up:

We have infinity, the concept of boundless increase or endless repetition, but mathematicians in set theory have developed systems of transfinite numbers, where symbols actually stand for various infinite quantities... and some infinities are larger than others. The magnitude of infinity that represents the (infinite) number of integers is called "aleph null" (the aleph character with a 0 subscript). The magnitude of infinity that "counts" the number of real nubmers (decimals, as opposed to integers) is "C", for continuum. C is so much greater than aleph null (it's equal to aleph null to the aleph null power) that it's hard to conveive of. For one infinity to be infinitely greater than another is mind-blowing, and like quantum physics, if it doesn't seem strange one probably doesn't quit grasp the magnitude(!) of the situation.

So love (limerence?) reminded me of the transfinite numbers. Thoughts of perfection, bliss, love, etc. for me often will revolve around one person and remind me of infinity; call her "aleph null". When in love (limerence) it seems that aleph null has some vaguely infinite qualities. But in the presence of "C", aleph null seems, well, nullified. I had a visceral psychological experience of my thoughts of aleph null sliding off in the infinite distance of the transfinite number line as I remembered the depth and quality of life experience had with C. Fortunately, as with the manifestations of the 3rd dimension in Flatland and the promise of a 4th dimension in Spaceland, there is a theoretical higher-level love promised by C to the C power, call it X = C^C.

So I'm waiting for Ms. X. But I'd also be plenty happy with C/2.