Zero....a whole lot more than "nothing".
I lived a prehistoric childhood. I grew up before DVDs, mobile devices, and PS4s. All we had were encyclopedias, coloring books, and black'n'white TV.
Then the most stupendous visitation of visualization known to Saturday morning cartoons appeared - color television.
And as TV shows went from no color to the whole Crayon box, kid's TV changed as well. And one of those changes was a cartoon that taught me to multiply.
Up to twelvesies.
No lie.
"Mutiplication Rock", baby!
Good bye, flash cards. Hello, funky tunes and cool cartoons.
My math skills got a boost but my grammar floundered near the shore, fighting the riptide which was dragging me into remedial English.
Then "Grammar Rock" came out.
Ohhhhh, yeah.
Pretty soon yours truly was walkin' down the Beach of Vocabulary. OK, I was still getting sand kicked in my face by participles and adverbs. But, hey, at least I was on the beach.
So today I read about John the Baptist. Weird dude. Would've fit right into the whole '60s thing in San Francisco. Ate honey and bugs, wore camel hair smocks. All he needed were some flowers in his hair.
This eccentric guy said something pretty profound:
"I must decrease that He may increase."
Whoa.
A pull of the Elixir of Knowledge and BAM - the Elixir has "Multiplication Rock" playing over "The 3rd Chapter of John".
I hear "My Hero, Zero", a song about this little guy named Zero who makes numbers bigger by being...nothing.
Huh.
Soooooo, what's the point of being nothing? Every day I'm told by commercials, songs, ads, and posts to "buy this" to "be that". Get more. BE MORE.
Increase my $$$, increase my standing,
Increase my increase.
But, here's a weirdo that says I outta "decrease"... and He, the One, called this maniac the greatest ever born.
All because he was trying to be a complete "zero".
Another pull of the Elixir. Huh. Makes sense, I s'pose.
Imagine the One that is One with the Father. He would be, of course, the "1". So if I give Him this part of my life, "zero" out my ownership, that moves the "1" over a bit.
And if I keep "zeroing out" more and more of my life, I keep moving Him, the "1", over a little bit more each time.
Which increases His number. Which lifts Him up. Just like it shows in the middle of"My Hero, Zero".
Decreasing myself causes the increasing of what really matters - Him, the "1".
Now THAT'S a different type of math.
It's the Math of Eternity.
And it's tough to do. It can be more confusing that calculus.
But there's a Tutor on call 24/7 to show us how to do it. A gentle Teacher who helps each of us at our own pace.
So I guess the cartoon is right. Zero really does make a hero.
But don't take my word for it.
Just ask the weirdo.
Or better yet, ask the "1".