Start at Zero

I was talking to a retired math teacher a while back and I told him that math was my worst subject in school. He said "You wanna know why?" I said I did. He asked "What is the first number?". "One" I answered. He smiled and said "Wrong. It is zero. That is why people have trouble with math."

Maybe that is why people have trouble with a lot of things. The beginning position should be zero; a clean slate. Whether it is governments, gods, laws, wives, presidential candidates, or whatever, we should not start counting at one, but zero. Then add one only if it seems absolutely necessary. Zero is a perfectly valid number, after all. Maybe in many cases it is the best number to choose.