The Set Theory Guide for Artists

15 Minutes a Day

After the end of year celebration, Indigo had told Carmody that he loved her too. Carmody’s mind had started to wander to the garden. Which colors and flowers would she choose? Carmody had started to become dependent on Indigo. It was the summer before her second year, and the forcing federation league was inactive over the summer. But she still had a lot of work to do, besides her school work. Her first priority was looking through the old archives for the rest of the book. And if she couldn’t find the chapter on large cardinals she would have to write it herself. She would have to look through the set theory books that had been fully preserved like the books written by Jech, Kunen and Kanamori. Also, most importantly, the entire contents of the website “Cantor’s Attic” had been printed and was available in the library.

The station was physically very far from Earth (who knows where) but they were still connected (though barely) to the Earth’s internet. The connection was very spotty and each student at the station could use the internet on the computers in the library for only 15 minutes per day. They had to make sure that they did not indicate that they were connecting from the station and there was a very limited number of websites to which they could connect. Carmody (and most others) usually used her 15 minutes each day on mathoverflow and the stack exchanges. Though, lately, now that Indigo was her boyfriend and he knew a lot of math she would just ask him. In fact, her favorite quality of Indigo (and he had a lot of good qualities) was that he would patiently answer any math question she asked him. And if he didn’t know the answer he would find the book or person who knew.

Carmody was just finishing her mail route, since there was still a lot of mail in the summer, and then planned to meet Indigo at the bookstore. When they got to the store, Indigo got two coffees for them and they had a lot of fun looking at the books and talking about anything that came to mind.

Carmody asked Indigo “Would you say that I am your girlfriend?” She had intended it as more of a light-hearted comment than a serious question because she had assumed weeks ago that they were a couple. She assumed he would say, “Of course!” when she played the conversation in her head and was currently playing this version in her head when she asked the question.

So it came as quite a shock when Indigo said “you could be one day.”

What followed was Carmody storming out of the bookstore and Indigo running after her. It came to light that not only did Indigo not think of the two of them as couple (yet?) but also that there were other girls he was taking to the bookstore. Carmody was filled with rage. But she had decided not too long ago that if she got mad at a boy because they were not on the same page she would not fight with him about it. She would simply start talking to other boys! And so that is what she did that night to ease the pain. She did not want to hear what Indigo had to say. She only felt regret that she might have cut off other options when she was in the Indigo delusion.

There are so many more colors, she thought. She would have to write about large cardinals on her own without Indigo’s help (even though he wanted to still help she didn’t care or want his help right now). She had her 15 minutes a day, and all the printed math. She took a day to feel sad and then made a new schedule for herself and took out all of her paint colors.