God Bless Ms. Mills

"There is an experience of the Eternal  breaking into time, which transforms all life into a miracle of faith and action."  A Testament of Devotion  by Robert R. Kelly, 1941.

I'm well into a book that my sister recommended to me entitled 10% Happier by Dan Harris. Specifically I'm on page 84.  Since there are 225 pages in the book, then shouldn't I be at least 3.7% happier by now?

So how did I arrive at 3.7% ?  I find basic math skills to be very useful.  My first experience with any math other than arithmetic was in the seventh grade when I took algebra 1 under Ms. Mills..  She became much more important to me than just by being my math teacher.  She was also my homeroom teacher.  At the Enterprise Junior High we had seven academic periods and then homeroom in the middle of the day. When I made the dramatic shift from one teacher/one class all day in elementary school to seven teachers/seven classes in junior high, I was the proverbial deer-in-the-headlights.  I was completely lost in a myriad of ways.

So besides teaching me algebra, Ms. Mills was my homeroom teacher as well..  "Home"room. "Home".  Homeroom was a safe place in the middle of the day.  She was a safe place. Thinking back  over the years I have remembered her as a mother figure who let me know that everything was all right. That I was going to be all right. Thinking now, as a grandfather, I remember her more as a grandmother--as one who provided complete love and acceptance no matter what. Or who knows, maybe she was an angel?  "If I can just make it to homeroom, then I can make it through the day."

But Ms. Mills did teach me basic algebra as well.  When I took algebra again in business school another deer-in-the-headlights situation occurred.  Only this time it wasn't me. A young lady raised her hand and said, "Dr. Poor, I understand numbers, it's all these letters that mix me up." Good luck with that.

From algebra in the seventh grade I went on to solid geometry and trigonometry in high school. Then in business school just a few years ago, I not only aced College Algebra but passed College Calculus as well.  That C in calculus at age 57 was the proudest grade of my academic career.  It was in calculus that for the first time I glimpsed the meaning of the phrase "the beauty of mathematics."  Calculus is indeed a beautiful thing--the  mathematical study of change.

I find basic math skills, algebra in particular,  to be very useful in my daily living.  Using ratio and proportions  has been my mathematical salvation over the years.  If I can turn a math question into a word problem and then into an equation, I can figure it out

I'm reading the book 10% Happier.  I'm now on page 84 of the book.  So theoretically how much happier should I already be?  First of all, since there are  225 pages in the book I simply divide the smaller by the larger to find out what percent of 225 is 84.  Then 84/225 yields  37%.  Now that wasn't  a word problem. I just know that's how it's done.  So then should I now be 37% happier?   No, that's counter intuitive because I'm only 10% happier after reading the entire book.  So now I have to figure out how much is 37% of 10%.  Those of you who are good at this have already calculated it in your head. It's the same way you figure a 20% tip at the table in your favorite restaurant(most of my servers get 20% because who can figure 18% in their head?).  But here's what you do.  You turn it into a word problem and go from there. "What is 37% of 10%?"  Now in math "of" means "multiply".  I simply multiply 37% times 10% to get 3.7%.  So there you have it.  I should be 3.7% happier than I was yesterday when I started reading the book.  I feel at least that much happier completing this math exercise.

In his book 10% Happier the noted news anchor Dan Harris tells of his transformational journey from high anxiety and  stress to personal peace. In his association with the "guru" Eckhart Tolle, he grasped the concept of "The Eternal Now."   The quote above  journals my personal introduction to the concept of "The Eternal Now" . On November 20, 1981, my heart still strangely warmed after the birth of my son four months prior, my new and now lifetime  friend Alan Mason put this book in my hands. Whereas I can't report that I was "transformed", it was a significant beginning for me.  "Now", 35 years later, Harris brilliantly reminds me of the concept.

So  if I'm 62 years old, and Alan gave me that book 35 years ago, how much of my lifetime have I had access to the concept of The Eternal Now?  Do the math.