Zero

Zero. The number of nothing. The Hindus and Buddhists gave us nothing, the Muslims expanded on it and spread it throughout the civilized world. The Christians were horrified by it. Nothingness. The void. Zero.

I watched the kid tag the door. Skinny kid. Poor, black. I mean black. African black. So black he was almost purple. Took him about four seconds.

Zero has no value. Numbers were invented when it became important to count. One goat, two goats, three goats, many goats. In order to count, something had to be there. Counting begins with 'one.' The concept of no goats is an abstract concept, meaningless in its obviousness.

The kid was very matter-of-fact about tagging the door. He wasn't furtive or hurried. He just walked up to the door and began painting. It wasn't vandalism; it was an announcement. I'm here. I exist. This proves it. Count me.

Zero has two uses. First, in our numerical system it's an empty space indicator. It distinguishes 1066 from 166. Second, it's a numeral that denotes the existence of nothing. Zero is a dangerous, radical concept. It destabilizes. If you add or subtract zero from another number, nothing changes. If you multiply a number by zero, you destroy it. When you try to divide a number by zero, the whole system of mathematics breaks down.

I must have made a sound, because after the kid finished tagging the door he turned and looked at me. Not a challenging look. Not an angry look. Not a look of fear or uncertainty. A look of disinterest. A look that indicated I was irrelevant to his existence. No...that's wrong. A look that indicated his existence had no commonality with my existence.

Zero derives from the Arabic term sifr, which also gives us 'cipher.' Cipher...to solve by means of arithmetic. Cipher...a coded message. Cipher...a nonentity.

"Why Zero?" I asked the kid. "It's what I call myself," he said. "Yes, but why Zero?" The kid shrugged. "I wanted to be Zorro, but somebody already has that."

But the kid is Zero and he's all that zero means. He's an abstract concept whose existence tilts the world on its head. He's an indispensable indicator of an empty space. He's a nonentity with the capacity to disrupt the system. He's a coded message spray painted on the street.

posted by greg @ 10:57 AM