It has been more than a year since my last blog post.

What is the lowest rung on the spiritual ladder?

I am mystified by those who claim to be pious because they attend church weekly without fail. Those who participate in the rituals, memorizing every word of text in their holy manuscript while claiming to have eternal life. These are the ones that exude enthusiasm that they have climbed the ladder to the very top while never having left the lowest rung.

The year was 1982, I was a young man working in hospital pharmacy preparing I.V. admixtures, working with Total Parenteral Hyperalimentation (TPN’s) and compounding oral anesthetics (cocaine) for use in the operating room. I was 18 at that time and the pharmacists were willing to teach me everything they knew because I was ready and willing to learn. Back then all the paper work was done manually and all calculations were relegated to a calculator. The closest thing to artificial intelligence that we utilized in that environment was the old word processor kept in the back office for creating work and vacation schedules.

There have been many books written and most mathematicians will tell you that if there is a God He/She/It is a mathematician. The reason for such books and statements is that personal ego cannot sway a mathematical solution. No matter how angry or happy, politically left or right, Christian or Islamic, etc. 1 + 1 will always equal 2. Math does not lie!

The other side of this math logic situation is that there are few people that would attempt to argue against the fact that 1 + 1 = 2 because that is just unreasonable. What we can deduce from this is that this simple equation is known and recognized universally. Do you know anyone that would argue this equation?

Today my son pulled a plastic zip-lock bag from the drawer, placed a few aluminum can tabs inside it and sealed it up. He then informed me that his class was competing with other classes to collect the most can tabs. Once the competition was finished all the can tabs collectively would be donated to charity. It was time for him to hear a story.

I used to work in the scrap metal recycling industry which my son is well aware of. At that time and I am sure still exists today was an urban legend or myth that went through the Hispanic population. The rumor was that a one gallon milk jug full of aluminum can tabs would net a person $80 to $100 depending on who you talked to. Some would even claim that each tab was worth 25 cents.