April 15, 2020

Confession of a Number Cruncher

        For now we see through a glass darkly;
        but then face to face; now I know in part;
        but then shall I know even as also I am known.

                      1 Corinthians 13:12 (KJV)

It's all about the numbers, right?
The Dow, my BMI, your A1C,
the balance in my checking account,
the national debt, gross domestic
product, IQ, the death toll, the
infection rate, the cost of living.

I mean, it's all about metrics, right?
If you can't measure it, if you can't
put a number to it, if you can't
crunch it to see how it comes out,
it doesn't exist, does it? Does it?
Isn't that the bottom line?

Numbers are real, right? The
numbers don't lie, man. It's men
that do that. Does that mean men
are not real? If you lie, do you
count? Does a lie send you
reeling into oblivion?

I swear to tell the truth, the whole
truth, and nothing but the truth.
But in so swearing, I lie. I cannot
tell the whole truth. I cannot see
the whole truth. I cannot measure
it, or put a number to it.

Am I thus damned? Yes. I see
as through a glass darkly. I cannot
tell the whole truth, but only a
fraction of it, and I don't even
know which part of the fraction.
Now I know in part.