more of a mathlete

Tucker is really good at math.

He can explain aloud the way eight plus eight is sixteen, and sixteen plus sixteen is thirty two, so four eighties must be three hundred twenty.

We find ourselves fascinated by the way his mind works, arranging friendly numbers and putting digits into compatible pairs.

He is fast at dividing by two and by four, for our family.  It won't take him long to divide by three and five soon.

But even better than quick facts are the broad mathematical theories he seems to grasp.

He understands that four plus five and three plus six both make nine, that there's almost always more than one way to arrive at a good answer.  That different people can have different good answers.

He knows that you cannot apply math to grief, that loss is loss.  That dogs die and husbands die and sisters die, and that all of those things leave people feeling sad.  That the balance of having plenty of people here cannot negate the missing feeling of having one "not here."

And he knows that one plus one does not always equal two, that sometimes it's even more.  Often it's even more.