In an equation that has both letters and numbers in it – or sometimes it’s all letters – you’d be asked to find the root in that equation, the thing that is gonna assign a value to one of those letters in order to () pave the way towards completing that equation. 

A likely place to start your detective work is by trying out zero as that root, a process referred to as ‘zero of a function’. You might recall from the essay “Zero’s Got Muscle” that – besides the fact that zero is indestructible – it’s also a start, a beginning. This all seems quite logical: Root. Zero. Beginning.

May I suggest, then, that you look at your beginning of 2024 as zero? Let’s start the year at zero, at your root that is – as it’s defined above – a value that satisfies or solves a given equation.

Now, you get to decide what your root for 2024 will be. Does it already exist? Since that word is a noun, then your designated root could be a person, place, or thing. So what’s it gonna be? 

Is your root a family member or a friend – someone who has a characteristic that you want to emulate (or perhaps not emulate)- or is your root You? Maybe your 2024 root is a location, a place where you want to travel to, or move to, or clean out or become a ‘member’ of – because you know the value it’d bring to the equation you are looking to satisfy. And if your root is a thing – well, go wild and pick your inanimate object that will serve as that base value from which you sprout in January and keep on growing from throughout the new year.

Of course I’ve always associated the word root with the start of something, the genesis from which all things after it would be based on — but, I had never before considered placing this characterization of value upon it, and not just any ol’ value, but a value that satisfies – or perhaps is even the holy grail to solve – an equation (aka problem aka challenge aka barrier to reaching some goal).

Oh, and one last bit about this week’s Math WoW: The next time you hear the words “your roots are showing” – where roots is referring to your family lineage or the hair on your head, or whether those four words are uttered by someone else or from yourself as you catch your mirrored reflection – I hope that the first response that pops into your head is, “Why, yes, my roots are showing. Thanks for noticing. How fantastic is that and how lucky am I?”

Being able to see the value of you and/or yours – now that is some clear-eyed solid visioning that you’ve got going on. Mazel Tov!