Numbers, Hope/lessness, Math, Public Speaking

I think I might start with math and hope. I want to draw a connection between the satisfaction of "counting for something" and the hopelessness of being "just a number." Number lines, the old Greek question of whether numbers are discovered or invented, and the question of why time is not counted decimally. (Ever notice that? It's almost as if people with six fingers on each hand invented the practice of keeping time. ) Numbers are counting for more as we swing into campaign summer: numbers of delegates, superdelegates, popular vote projections; and numbers at the pump, inflation figures, the reality of trying to stretch too few dollars to cover too many expenses.

Numbers are the basic language that can be used to translate the universe into something comprehensible to human minds. Often, if an equation predicts that a certain thing ought to exist, even if it can't yet be found, it turns out to be real. Black holes were predicted in the math before they were detected, as was the Top Quark. The next big challenge of this sort is the Higgs boson. Higgsless models have been proposed to explain why the symmetry in the electroweak force is broken, but they just don't have the elegance of the Higgs boson model. It's more satisfying to imagine the Higgs bosons darting around like Puck in A Midsummer Night's Dream, playing a joke on all of the other particles by sticking the donkey-ears of mass onto them.

Without the Higgs boson, nothing would count for anything and all of the pieces of matter would go flying masslessly at the speed of light. This particle is so small that it can't yet be counted, but it may be the thing that gives weight to all the serious matters of the universe. It is the subatomic studio audience that adds its applause--or not--to the script of the universe. It counts, even if, so far, it is just a number.