By Joseph J. Mazzella
When I was a little boy my mom, dad, nana and brothers would often play cards at the kitchen table in the afternoons. It was a fun way to pass the time and after watching countless games of rummy, Black Jack, Knock, and poker I started to join in.
I was only five but I learned quickly and was soon winning as often as I lost. When I started school I found out something too: all of those hours playing cards had made me good with numbers. Soon I was getting 100 percent on my math tests and it stayed that way until high school. That was when I discovered they had a thing called algebra. I was shocked to see letters mixed in with the numbers and I struggled to learn it. Then one day I opened a calculus book. One look was all I needed to know that I wasn’t going to be majoring in math when I got to college.
Instead I found myself studying many things both inside the classroom and out. I studied literature, history, psychology, philosophy, and theology. I learned from them all and they all put me on a path that I am still on today: it is a journey of learning all I can about life and about love. One thing I did learn was that love has its own unique math that isn’t rational yet makes perfect sense. In the Calculus of Love the more love you give away the more love you have. Sharing sorrows means subtracting them. Sharing joys means multiplying them. And when you allow God’s love to fill your heart it doesn’t burst but keeps growing bigger and bigger for all eternity.
Love like life is often more than we can understand. It isn’t rational, but it is beautiful. It isn’t logical, but it is wonderful. The mind can’t comprehend it, but the soul understands it. It doesn’t always make sense to us, but it makes perfect sense to God. May you always major in love, then. May you choose it, share it, learn of it. Only then will your life add up right.
