The Age of an Angel
Happy 75th birthday! Best wishes to my Mom. I call her Mom and everyone else calls her Angel or Lita. This is a story of ancestral mathematics. In order to be born, you need: 2 grandparents 4 grandparents 8 great-grandparents 12 second great-grandparents 32 third great grandparents 64 fourth great-grandparents 128 fifth great-grandparents 256 sixth great-grandparents 512 seventh great-grandparents 1,024 eighth great-grandparents 2,048 ninth great-grandparents For you to be born today from 12 previous generations, you needed a total of 4,094 ancestors over the last 400 years. How many struggles? How many battles? How much happiness? How many love stories? How many expressions of hope for the future? All this for you to exist in this present moment. Then along came Angela. Who grew up to be an Angel. She is a tropical Angel, and those are a special category of kindness. If kindness was currency, she would be a billionaire. Angel has been a child with three siblings, a mother ...