"Not all who wander are lost." - J.R.R. Tolkien, The Fellowship of the Ring My photo of Devil's Lake State Park in Baraboo, WI converted to a watercolor with Waterlogue. Finding Pi When I was twelve, My mother taught me about Pi. Never satisfied with the “just because,” She explained the why. “Draw a circle and a line Through its center point. This is the diameter.” She magicked diameter into A string and pulled It to her. Holding the abstract term in Her right hand, I began to understand. Diameter became real. She picked herself up and Inched around the misshapen wheel. Once Twice Thrice And just a little bit more. “Three times and a little bit more. Equals Pi, 3.14 Circumference = 2πr And 2 times r = d d times pi = circumference, AKA Diameter’s journey.” “But why go around in circles at all? Diameter cuts from A to B, So what’s with the circular sprawl?” “That’s not her story.” “But why?” The earth is not flat. Diameter needs Pi. Pi gives us circumference, The Earth’s equator. All lines of latitude and longitude Population and flavor. Diameter can cut through the planet, From one pole to the other. But you can’t dig a hole to China, You’ll miss all that’s out there. You need to understand Pi So you can move on From volume and area and Go back to the why. Why is there hunger, poverty and pain? Why am I here? What can I give and gain? Then, If you don’t like it, Take it apart and build it again.”1 “Not all who wander are lost,” Said she. “It’s not the destination. It’s the journey. So keep asking questions, and Don’t be afraid to wander. If you’re going around in circles, You’re not lost. You’re just looking for Pi.” -Jill Zappia Created by Jill Zappia Reflection on Navigating EarlyThis week I read Navigating Early by Clare Vanderpool. Set in the post-WWII era and told in first-person narration, it tells the story of Jack Baker, a teen-age boy who was uprooted from his Kansas farm after his mother died and sent to a boarding school in Maine, to be near to his father's Navy base.
Jack (Jackie), is completely lost. He's been torn away from the only home he's ever known and struggles to make sense of his young mother's death. Jack makes an unlikely friend in Early. Early Auden is an enigma. Every inch of his four-foot, seven inch frame is full of strange habits, stories and numbers. Early lives in the janitor's workroom because it's big and warm and away from the other students. He sorts jelly beans (into rows of ten when he's concentrating on a problem and by color when he's upset), is a master craftsman, and listens to "Mozart on Sundays, Louis Armstrong on Mondays, Frank Sinatra on Wednesdays, and Glen Miller on Fridays. Unless it's raining. If it's raining, it's always Billie Holiday,"(30). It's fairly obvious to the modern reader that Early has autism. Because this story is set in a time before autism was recognized, he was just considered strange. Vanderpool paints him as a lovable, intelligent, and misunderstood character. As the story progresses, Jack (and the reader!) begins to understand him and what seemed strange starts to make perfect sense. Perhaps what is most strange about Early is his fascination with Pi. Pi is the number of times a diameter will go around its circle. It's first three numbers are 3.14, but it doesn't end there. The number pi is impossible to write in its entirety, because it goes on forever. Early has a special connection to numbers. "I've always just seen numbers differently than most people. Fisher says it's a gift. He says when he sees the numbers that start with 3.14, it's just a bunch of figures that don't mean anything more than numbers. That made me sad for him. For me, they are blue and purple and sand and ocean and rough and smooth and loud and whispering, all at the same time," (125). When a math teacher claims that Pi will end, Early storms out of the classroom. He later tells Jack that Pi can't end because that's not in his story. Jack listens to Early as the story of Pi unveils. Pi is not a what to Early. He's a who. "Early circled the number one. 'This is Pi. And the rest of the numbers are his story. The story of Pi begins with a family. Three is the mother. She is beautiful and kind and she carried him in her heart always. Four is his father. He is strong and good. And here' -- Early pointed to the number one, in the middle-- 'this is Pi. His mother named him Polaris, but she said he would have to earn his name,"(31). Early tells Jack (Jackie as he calls him) the story of Pi in segments. Pi travels to far-away lands, gets lost, is captured by pirates, escapes a volcano, saves a fair maiden (well, the Haggard and Homely Wench, but she turns into a fair maiden!) meets a white-haired ancient, get's trapped in catacombs of sorrow, and becomes hopelessly lost. Having used the constellations to find his way all of these years, Pi can no longer see the stars. He can't see Ursa Major, the great mother bear, who will guide him home. When Jack's dad doesn't show up for fall break like he planned, Jack follows Early into the Appalachian mountains in a row boat. Early fully believes in Pi's existence and seems to think that if he can find the huge black bear that's been terrorizing the Appalachian trail, that he will also find Pi and prove that he is not dead and that Pi does not end. What happens in the woods is truly amazing. Early's story starts to come true. And Jack realizes that Pi is real too. Could he still be alive? This story is about living with loss, the journey of letting go, the power of friendship (Semper Fi!) and hope. I kept thinking about my mom while I was reading this book. She's a 7th grade math teacher and is a big reason behind why I became a teacher. I remember learning about the concept of Pi when I was eleven and wondering where the number 3.1415926... came from. So she showed me. She took out a tupperware from our cabinet and grabbed some yarn, a pencil and a pair of scissors from a drawer. "Draw a circle using this tupperware," she said. Then, "Now cut the string so it goes straight across the center of the circle." She proceeded to teach me the concept of Pi and explained its purpose and everything you can do with it. I wrote the poem "Finding Pi" after reading Navigating Early. The poem starts off with my mother's explanation of Pi and my reaction to her lesson. The mother in my poem is my mother, but she's also partly Jack's mother, and probably your mother too.
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