Are you good at math? Some people are absolute whizzes when it comes to numbers, and I’m fascinated by that.
Once I watched as my head tennis pro (I was the general manager of an athletic club) negotiated his pay package with the club’s owner. The tennis pro, who was terrific with the numbers 15, 30, and 40, but called 0 love, was up against a tough opponent. To gain an advantage, he brought a calculator with him. It wasn’t enough.
The owner, a savvy businessman, could mentally calculate the numbers faster than the pro could press the buttons on his little machine. Translating a percentage of X number of lessons over Y number of weeks at a rate of Z into a salary was but the work of an instant for the businessman.
But the owner was both good and kind, and he explained how he arrived at his offer, which was accepted.
As I look back on that I think, “The owner’s ability to divide has helped us avoid division.”
Manipulation of numbers
Arithmetic, which is actually a branch of mathematics, deals with the manipulation of numbers. What is the word that deals with the manipulation of people?
Oh, yes, now I remember — politics.
Here is what politics and arithmetic have in common: addition, subtraction, multiplication, division. Especially division.
This is not new, of course, even for America. Some of you will know what is perhaps the second most famous speech given by Abraham Lincoln, which begins:
A house divided against itself cannot stand.
At that point in time America was divided over slavery. The quote was not original (it comes from Matthew 12:25 in the Bible), though Lincoln applied it beautifully.
His speech went on to say — and this is very important for us:
I do not expect the Union to be dissolved – I do not expect the house to fall – but I do expect it will cease to be divided.
It will become all one thing or all the other.
Lincoln understood the absolute truth that a house divided against itself cannot stand. He also knew that the Union was strong enough to survive the worst, the most divisive issue America had ever faced.
And he was right.
Reversing division
To reunite the Union in Lincoln’s day, it took a war that lasted four years and cost more than 600,000 people their lives. One of those lives was Abraham Lincoln’s.
And eventually, in spite of what some who loved the idea of division said, the Union ceased to be divided.
The division we have today is sometimes compared to Lincoln’s time, but it doesn’t come close. Our divisions today are less practical and more ideological.
Yes, slavery was, for a great deal of the South, a practical matter.
In 1860 the population of the US was just over 31,400,000. The estimated farm population was 15,141,000. Farmers made up 58% of the labor force.
You may find this hard to believe, but a lot of those slave owners thought slavery was fine. Many churches in the South supported it with examples from the Bible.
You will not find it hard to believe that a lot of people who did have reservations about slavery still justified it. It was legal, at least in Southern states, and it had a positive impact on the economy. You know how people are about their livelihoods.
Clearly, though, it was wrong. Right prevailed, at a terrible price.
Today’s divide
Before the Civil War, which few people wanted, many solutions were put forward. One of those was to divide the Union. Lincoln said (correctly) that doing so would bring down all of America. Ultimately, America must “become all one thing or all the other.”
If you care at all about America, you should be thankful that it became free.
Today we have Red States and Blue States, replacing the Northern and Southern states of Lincoln’s time, but this time with no danger of actual war.
Americans today may despise the ideologies of the Reds or the Blues, but instead of fighting, they move. Which is why California has lost so much tax revenue that it is now in serious debt.
Neither does the idea of being “all one thing or all the other” apply to Red and Blue. Both sides need the other, and the citizens of America need both.
Ideally, though, both sides would work together, and that is a tall order. Just ask Kyrsten Sinema, Senator from Arizona.
She was (always has been) progressive socially, but was increasingly conservative fiscally. In fact she left the Democratic Party to become an Independent — one of only four in the Senate — to better negotiate the issues.
That is much tougher than parroting the party line, and being shot at from both sides results in a lot of bullet holes in your hat. She has declined to run again.
On the plus side, there will be no civil war over climate change, and no president will be assassinated over inflation.
New math
On the minus side, there is division today, and it is serious enough that we should be working to resolve it. In fact many people in Washington are working on it, some openly and more behind the scenes.
Here is what you can do.
Subtract yourself from the dividers. I’m not saying don’t have beliefs and opinions, I’m saying don’t be a divider.
Add yourself to the thinking class. Too many dividers are parroting what they hear from their particular Tribal leaders rather than listening to both sides of an issue, then crafting a logical and reasonable answer.
Multiply the good you do for your family, friends and community. That will give you the right to share your reasoned responses and have them heard.
Diminish the power of political comments by asking two questions: What do you think God thinks about that? and Which is more important — the country or a political party?
If we can apply that “new math” we will no longer be a house divided, we will be a house united — not in opinion, but in purpose. I believe God will bless that America.
Do good. It’s in you!
A house divided needs new math
Are you good at math? Some people are absolute whizzes when it comes to numbers, and I’m fascinated by that.
Once I watched as my head tennis pro (I was the general manager of an athletic club) negotiated his pay package with the club’s owner. The tennis pro, who was terrific with the numbers 15, 30, and 40, but called 0 love, was up against a tough opponent. To gain an advantage, he brought a calculator with him. It wasn’t enough.
The owner, a savvy businessman, could mentally calculate the numbers faster than the pro could press the buttons on his little machine. Translating a percentage of X number of lessons over Y number of weeks at a rate of Z into a salary was but the work of an instant for the businessman.
But the owner was both good and kind, and he explained how he arrived at his offer, which was accepted.
As I look back on that I think, “The owner’s ability to divide has helped us avoid division.”
Manipulation of numbers
Arithmetic, which is actually a branch of mathematics, deals with the manipulation of numbers. What is the word that deals with the manipulation of people?
Oh, yes, now I remember — politics.
Here is what politics and arithmetic have in common: addition, subtraction, multiplication, division. Especially division.
This is not new, of course, even for America. Some of you will know what is perhaps the second most famous speech given by Abraham Lincoln, which begins:
At that point in time America was divided over slavery. The quote was not original (it comes from Matthew 12:25 in the Bible), though Lincoln applied it beautifully.
His speech went on to say — and this is very important for us:
Lincoln understood the absolute truth that a house divided against itself cannot stand. He also knew that the Union was strong enough to survive the worst, the most divisive issue America had ever faced.
And he was right.
Reversing division
To reunite the Union in Lincoln’s day, it took a war that lasted four years and cost more than 600,000 people their lives. One of those lives was Abraham Lincoln’s.
And eventually, in spite of what some who loved the idea of division said, the Union ceased to be divided.
The division we have today is sometimes compared to Lincoln’s time, but it doesn’t come close. Our divisions today are less practical and more ideological.
Yes, slavery was, for a great deal of the South, a practical matter.
In 1860 the population of the US was just over 31,400,000. The estimated farm population was 15,141,000. Farmers made up 58% of the labor force.
You may find this hard to believe, but a lot of those slave owners thought slavery was fine. Many churches in the South supported it with examples from the Bible.
You will not find it hard to believe that a lot of people who did have reservations about slavery still justified it. It was legal, at least in Southern states, and it had a positive impact on the economy. You know how people are about their livelihoods.
Clearly, though, it was wrong. Right prevailed, at a terrible price.
Today’s divide
Before the Civil War, which few people wanted, many solutions were put forward. One of those was to divide the Union. Lincoln said (correctly) that doing so would bring down all of America. Ultimately, America must “become all one thing or all the other.”
If you care at all about America, you should be thankful that it became free.
Today we have Red States and Blue States, replacing the Northern and Southern states of Lincoln’s time, but this time with no danger of actual war.
Americans today may despise the ideologies of the Reds or the Blues, but instead of fighting, they move. Which is why California has lost so much tax revenue that it is now in serious debt.
Neither does the idea of being “all one thing or all the other” apply to Red and Blue. Both sides need the other, and the citizens of America need both.
Ideally, though, both sides would work together, and that is a tall order. Just ask Kyrsten Sinema, Senator from Arizona.
She was (always has been) progressive socially, but was increasingly conservative fiscally. In fact she left the Democratic Party to become an Independent — one of only four in the Senate — to better negotiate the issues.
That is much tougher than parroting the party line, and being shot at from both sides results in a lot of bullet holes in your hat. She has declined to run again.
On the plus side, there will be no civil war over climate change, and no president will be assassinated over inflation.
New math
On the minus side, there is division today, and it is serious enough that we should be working to resolve it. In fact many people in Washington are working on it, some openly and more behind the scenes.
Here is what you can do.
Subtract yourself from the dividers. I’m not saying don’t have beliefs and opinions, I’m saying don’t be a divider.
Add yourself to the thinking class. Too many dividers are parroting what they hear from their particular Tribal leaders rather than listening to both sides of an issue, then crafting a logical and reasonable answer.
Multiply the good you do for your family, friends and community. That will give you the right to share your reasoned responses and have them heard.
Diminish the power of political comments by asking two questions: What do you think God thinks about that? and Which is more important — the country or a political party?
If we can apply that “new math” we will no longer be a house divided, we will be a house united — not in opinion, but in purpose. I believe God will bless that America.
Do good. It’s in you!
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