2025, our maths-inclined friends and colleagues have assured us, is The Year Of The Square, and the wires (at least the social-network ones) have been buzzing with that proposition and proof thereof (in the form of various maths nuggets).

Sadly, I belong to that unfortunate minority in whom maths rarely causes wonder, and more often causes a heavy head. So, when it comes to maths, I’m a square (as defined by the beatnik-era usage)

To me, (and I know this may sound sacrilegious) ‘square’ is a word among other versatile words, and a shape among other versatile shapes.

Here are my wishes then, for all of us, for The Year Of The Square:

Let’s do our best to try to get people seen as square, socially and culturally, at least. (Economically, as well, would be ideal, but the possibility of actualisation of that ideal – the one where we’re all square – has long passed.)
While this objective may be a tough circle to square, let’s square our shoulders and, unhesitatingly, square up to medieval mindsets, retrogressive influences and vested interests.

And…. while the square is, certainly, a shape that lends itself, almost automatically, to order, let us not stand by while attempts are made to press everyone into identical and uniform squares placed in preset grids that allow no room for individuality and individual expression. Let’s, instead, try to personify Mondrian’s squares, which work in free flowing harmony with each other, and with their rectangular cousins, irrespective of size.

All this seems quite contrived, doesn’t it?
So, I’ll try to paraphrase all of it in one unsquare line:
let us try to promote happiness in others since, in doing so, we’d be promoting happiness in ourselves.
HAPPY NEW YEAR, EVERYONE !!

And, here’s a great tune to get the year going – Dave Brubeck’s ‘Unsquare Dance’, by Jon Lord !

https://www.youtube.com/embed/VACwF7djomQ?si=5ieyODfnC9Z7ZTJl