Advice from a small town girl

I've always been pretty good at arithmetic. Not a whiz, you understand, but pretty good. Once beyond arithmetic and into math, however, all bets are off.

But I've been thinking lately about one of the phrases from the past. I'm not sure how old I was, but I remember a light bulb going on in my brain when I understood what "the lowest common denominator" was.

I really love it when the bulb goes on. I wish it would happen more frequently. In fact, I wish it would happen right now.

We all know that the lowest common denominator in our monetary system is the lowly penny. The penny represents (currently, anyway) the smallest unit of currency available to us. Theoretically, we could pay any of our bills using only pennies.

Now, why would we want to do that?

Paying our bills with pennies would be impractical, to say the least. It would be tedious (who's going to count them?) and time consuming. It would be physically challenging (who's going to carry them?) as well. It would take up a LOT of space. And it would be mean. But it's possible.

Lately (as in the past few decades), some people have been pressing for the retirement of the penny. As goods cost more and more, the penny is losing its prominence.

Be that as it may, I haven't actually been thinking about pennies. They were just supposed to be my example of a denominator. A "lowest common denominator."

I just keep remembering that if you had to figure out the result of a problem involving fractions, you first had to determine what the lowest common denominator was.

I loved fractions. Because the light bulb had come on.

I also loved algebra. I use it every day. But that's another story.

Back to those lowest common denominators.

Our world is full of fractions.

I'm not talking about elementary school arithmetic any more.

I'm talking about grown up arithmetic. About people. About liberals and conservatives, about Christians and Muslims, Buddhist, Hindu and atheist (why isn't "atheist" capitalized?)

About all those colors of the little children that Jesus loves.

About rich and poor, gay or straight, single or married.

About producer and consumer, retailer and customer. Male and female. Employed or not. Infant or aged.

You get the picture.

Just as with the penny, the lowest common denominator is 1.

It's always going to be 1.

And it seems to me that we'd all get along a lot better if we could recognize that lowest common denominator.

And treat it with respect.