A few weeks ago I quoted some paragraphs from a Vermont writer named Elayne Clift. When I asked for her permission, I offered to split my payment with her.
        But as I noted, "50% of nothing is still nothing."
        An interesting concept, nothing.
        Add zero to anything, or subtract zero from anything, the result is the same – the original number remains unchanged.
        Not so with multiplication and division.
        Multiply something by nothing, and you end up with nothing, no matter how much you started with. Any number times zero equals zero.
        Divide zero into a million parts – it's still zero.
        But conversely, I was taught in school, even if you had very little, if you divide it by nothing, you suddenly have everything. Any number divided by zero equals infinity.
        Computers, being extremely literal creations, can't handle infinity. My spreadsheet program frequently informs me that it cannot divide by zero.
        But without zeroes, my computer couldn't function at all.

The origins of nothing
        No one really knows who invented zero. Evidence suggests it evolved in India, around 600 A.D., and was brought to Europe by Arab traders along the Silk Road. But it didn't come into widespread use in Europe until around 1600.
        The ancient Romans didn't have a zero. And if you don't think that was a handicap, try dividing MMCDLXXVIII by DCCCXXVI. (The answer is III – could you have worked it out in Roman numerals?)
        The lack of a zero led to a historic legacy of confusion.
        The obscure Roman monk named Dionysius Exiguus who created our calendars split the years into B.C. (Before Christ) and A.D. (Anno Domini, the year of our Lord). But because he didn't have a zero to work with, his new calendar went directly from 1 B.C. to 1 A.D. Which meant, 20 centuries later, that two thousand years did not run out on December 31, 1999. The new millennium didn't really start until January 1, 2001.
        Which suggests that zero – nothing – is still significant enough that it has to be there.
        We humans have difficulty thinking of nothing.
        Astronomers say the universe burst into being, out of nothing. Our minds boggle. We need a container for that nothingness. We need someone, or something, to create in that nothingness. My tradition calls that something "God."

About what's not
        In writing classes, I encourage students to avoid using negatives. I say, "Don't think about an elephant." Guess what pops into their minds!
        Our minds don't know how to not-think about something – we can only switch our thoughts to something different.
        One of the commandments given to Moses prohibited making any "graven image" of God.
        No statues. No pictures. No descriptions.
        To this day, devout Jews will not write the name God. Because a name is a description. They will use either a substitute, or they'll write "G*d."
        According to the Ten Commandments, it seems, the only way to think of the divine is to think of nothing.
        Maybe zero isn't so insignificant after all.