Unnatural Number

(No, that isn't a typo; I didn't mean to type irrational numbers)

In mathematics, many strange classes and categories of numbers exist: irrational numbers, complex numbers, superreal and surreal numbers... and they fit within the universe of mathematics; they have their place. They have no place in my brain, but they still belong in the abstract reality of mathematics.

When numbering and counting things in nature, fewer classes and categories of numbers are useful. As a practical matter, enumerating things in nature involves just two numeric possibilities. You can have none of something—unicorns (sorry!), political scruples, circles with a ratio circumference to diameter = 3—or you can have more than one—narwhals, spoiled celebrities, stars.

What you can't have (or can't have for long) is one of something.

It's said that "nature abhors a vacuum" and that's just not true: look how much vacuum there is in the universe! What nature really abhors is uniqueness. In nature, for any class of things—any species, any class of celestial body, any geographic feature, any thing—there is either more than one of them, or there aren't any at all.

I'm not talking here about the kind of fine points that make each of us a unique treasure to others. I'm talking about the big stuff. One is a transitory number: If there's one of anything it won't be long before there's either more than one or there aren't any at all. One is an unnatural number.

The upshot of all this is simple, really: if you encounter one of something delightful and for whatever reason it doesn't come to you, do not despair. If there's one, there are almost certainly others.

I'm not saying why this makes me happy...