The empty set

The empty set is a proper subset of any set. It makes perfect sense to me, but then i am trained in the language of maths.

But how about you guys out there, does it make sense to you? How about the set of women who won Academy awards in both Best Actress and Best Supporting Actress categories? It's a five member set {Helen Hayes, Ingrid Bergman, Maggie Smith, Meryl Streep, Jessica Lange}. You are fine with {Meryl Streep} being a subset, or {Jessica Lange, Maggie Smith} for that matter. But are you completely ok with letting an empty set { } be a subset of this prestigious set? Are you really?

The other day we found that most undergraduates (non-math majors) have difficulty with the mathematical notion of nothing being a part of a something. Our class wondered, would it make sense outside the realm of maths? Later at home i wondered on my own, could i perhaps come up with some sort of plausible example linking the two?

And then came Thursday night. It felt like I was nothing.

In a way, each of us at different times have been proper subsets of our own selves. When some aspects of us manifested, and the others went missing. Us humans are a funny bunch, really. Each a force - moving inexplicably inside the orbit of life. A random pattern of ebbs and flows. And all that are in the middle.

And yes. At one end of that spectrum, there lurks an empty set.

Within each of us.