Beyond Infinity

Let me pause to explain a little here. In traditional numerology what Maglio was saying was true. The way the ancient Greeks thought about numbers meant that odd numbers were masculine and even numbers were feminine. As far as I know, the number one wasn’t really considered even or odd. It was like the creator of all other numbers because it can’t be split. In other words, it only has one factor: itself. Other numbers, even prime numbers, have at least two factors.

All through school I wondered what made odd numbers odd. Were they strange? Were they problematic somehow? When I started reading about Pythagoras, Euclid and other mathematicians, I began to understand more. Odd numbers can be split into three parts, two of them paired, with the number 1 always left alone. Take seven, for example. It splits into three matched pairs, with one leftover: 2-2-2-1. Or it can be a pair of threes with a leftover, such as: 3-1-3 (my favorite number). Nineteen, for example, can be split into nine matched pairs and one leftover: 2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-2-1. It could also be a pair of nines and a leftover, such as: 9-1-9. With odd numbers there’s always a leftover.

Think of the expression Two’s company, but three’s a crowd. There’s a natural pairing and then one leftover. The single number that remains is like a single person; it just hasn’t met another number yet. It’s not complete in the sense that there’s always an opposite complement awaiting a match. Think about opposites again: up/down, left/right, male/female, day/night, light/darkness. There can’t be one without the other. For example, if there were only darkness, then the concept of light wouldn’t exist. As soon as light exists, then there’s a pair. Think about it: this is why adding two odd numbers make an even number and the sum of two even numbers make another even number.