Fiction
How to Calculate a Ratio
My friend told me this story once.
We sat at terminals and typed quickly and we wondered exactly what the ratio of dreams-to-shattered-hopes was. We tried calculus at first, and then literary criticism. A few of us ended up with new variants on psychoanalysis. Others remained skeptical. Where was the key to be found?
As the supervisors paced the floor, fingers flew over v, X. : they prepared a pattern which only we could ascertain. Our thoughts were elaborated in the conjunctions of keystrokes. The humble din was our collective voice.
I don't know if it was my idea at first, or if something else started it and we became caught up in the discussion, but when we walked out, I could tell by the smile on everyone's face that we had all been thinking the same thing.
The ratio was exactly 1:3.216.