My Mathematical Mind

Work has picked up now that classes are back in session. Suddenly I have stuff to do. Maybe that's the cure for the summertime blues. While it was nice not to have pressure to get things done, I was bored out of my mind. Being in limbo didn't help either. I'm not out of it, but at least now I have something to keep me occupied.

And what, pray tell, has been the focus of this work? Making pieces fit together, the calculus of schedules. Bringing several conflicting schedules in concert for one master calendar while still allowing for flexibility pleases my left brain. Really, it's not much different from putting words together in an interesting way, although I'd like to think my creativity with language can be more elegant than mere assembling.

Seeing structure must be a family thing. My three younger brothers all work as engineers. While I don't think they always respect what I do, especially compared to their jobs and "hard" majors, it isn't altogether different. They're looking for congruence with numbers whereas I'm seeking it in the production of television shows and writing about it in art, be it words, images, or sounds. That's probably why I have a soft spot for artists who find creativity within established and potentially limiting forms. It's the improvisation or the novelty within a framework's confines, the discovery of unknown dimensions, that can bring so much pleasure.

Which brings me to knitting. I enjoy seeing how the manipulation of stitches creates patterns. The numbers can be reassuring even if I'm unable to envision the end product at first. I'm getting the itch to design something, although I'm not sure that I have a good enough grasp to do it properly yet. I don't know how one goes about doing it. I don't know what I would design either. Yet that love of form and an interest in playing with it calls to me.