I rejoice that we live in a world of boundless, infinite possibilities, one in which with Blake we can see a world in a grain of sand and a heaven in a wildflower, hold infinity in the palm of your hand and eternity in an hour. I rejoice that the sacred scriptures of our faith portray a God who listens to prayer, who loves us and longs to lead us. I rejoice that my chosen line of work, mathematics, has enabled me to bring into being new things that did not exist before, and to greet with wonder and awe many amazing inventions of my fellow workers. I rejoice that daily we live immersed in infinity, that we have the freedom not only to make choices but at times to be the agent, by will or by grace, to sing to the Lord a new song.

Quoth Edward Nelson, a professor at Princeton, in a paper that Professor Ellenberg linked and excerpted this morning on his blog, Quomodocumque. I read the paper this morning before setting out to do some mathematics of my own, and that first paragraph really grabbed me.

On a semi-related note, I really need to pay Jordan a visit. We could talk math. Or baseball. I'm thinking the latter.