Abacus - Where it all started

There was a story our drama instructor once told us. Unfortunately I forget the actual story, but he had stumbled across something from his past. When he picked it up, he suddenly felt a wave of emotion overcome him. The sensation of that object brought back memories that had lain dormant for years.

I didn't really believe it at first. I'm pretty confident in my memory retention. The times that I pulling up memories, I'm usually able to pull up with quite a bit of detail... granted I'm not sure how much of it is filled in by imagination. It wasn't until my grandfather's funeral 7 years ago that I came across the sort of intense emotional surge that familiar objects can evoke. Most people who know me fairly well know that I lost my mother at a fairly young age, but time worked its magic over the years to lock away such grief.

In Chinese culture, the color white has special significance relating to the dead. As such, white headbands, and dressing completely in white are reserved for mourning close family members. Its this feature that I constantly have to be wary of in taiko, although I have broken this tradition in Japan, but I digress. It should be noted that this symbolism is taken seriously by many. During most of the funeral, I felt rather detached: meeting up with family members I hadn't seen or heard from in close to a decade, marveling at how many cousins I never knew about, looking upon the face of a man I hadn't seen in what could have been 13 years (unless I'm forgetting an event somewhere), and most of the while, feeling really existential about it all (the walk to the grave site felt like it was straight out of Camus...). But the moment we were to don our white bandannas was something extraordinary, because when they handed me that little strip of cloth, I cried like I was 5 again. And really, it was because it felt like I was 5 again.

Today's little brush with the past was less depressing. I found the abacus I had since I was a kid (maybe 7yo?) on my desk. It has floated around my belongings over the years, and for whatever reason it resurfaced. After opening it and playing around with it, I remembered the few Chinese school lessons I took in Arizona. For the uninitiated, Chinese school is more than just a school where they teach you Chinese; it was supplementary class time that covered vocabulary, math, and the arts as well... all while keeping snot-nosed brats out of their parents hair during the day.

This abacus was one of the tools we learned to use to do simple arithmetic. I don't ever remember using it much, except for the introduction that we got on it. Most importantly, it was very useful for shaking and making rhythms. It was my first brush with rhythm making! Then I remembered... I think that might have been the school that gave me 60 addition or multiplication problems to finish in a few days. My dad would scare the hell out of me by threatening to leave me at the office if I didn't finish my homework. So that's how it all started... the (mild) inclination for math that supports my role as an engineer, the (amateur) percussionist, and a severe case of separation anxiety.

Interestingly, this abacus is in base 10. I don't know what base the 2 layered abacus is in.. so I have no idea how those work.