Shining Trapezohedron

Math is not one of my strengths. A lot of people say that, and there is a while range of reasons why it may be so. There are serious problems with how we approach teaching math in schools. There's also an "attitude problem". Adults often display an attitude of, "No, it's not fun. Yes, it's hard. Quit whinin' and start studyin'!" That doesn't really encourage children to want to learn.

Personally, I think math is fascinating! That's even true after years of adults confusing my dread of doing the schoolwork for not liking math. The biggest obstacle for me is that my ability to understand concepts hits a point where it is impaired by my limitations when it comes to arithmetic. I have a learning disability called dyscalculia. Even if math came easy to me, though, algebra probably would have been something I felt neutral about. It would have been a necessary class to acquire skills to move on to things I found more fascinating. I wish I had been able to learn trigonometry! Oh, and how I have adored calculus from afar! I was frustratingly surprised and sadly disappointed to find out dyscalculia made basic high school geometry so difficult for me, though. 

All of that is to bring me to the point of saying I spent a lot of time this past week researching and trying to wrap my mind around what, exactly, a trapezohedron is. I think I almost got it, but my mind wandered just a little too far and I nearly had an anxiety attack over various possibilities for figuring out the area of a hypothetical ice cream cone.

As immersed as I've been in my own writing, it hasn't made me walk away from reading Peter Levenda's Starry Wisdom. It's the last book in this trilogy, I'm over halfway through it, and my own writing has simply slowed my progress. That's really saying something about how much I'm enjoying these books, because getting more and more involved in my own creations can easily make me forget a book exists for long enough that I have to start over from the beginning when I pick it up again. I don't know if Lovecraft would adore Levenda's trilogy or be angered by it. Maybe a little of both. I definitely feel like it is some of the most "true to the source" modern Mythos work I've read. The twists, tilts, retellings, critiquings... It doesn't glorify Lovecraft, and calls him out on his BS several times along the way. And that actually adds to what makes it all work. 

I've reached a point in the story where the shining trapezohedron starts getting attention. (As a side note, this had me a little concerned about how the fictional version of PB Randolph was going to get through things. The physical world's PB Randolph was someone I would love to have been able to meet and discuss a lot of things with.) It's mentioned in the story that the crystal structure of garnets is trapezohedral. That got my attention. Some of my strongest allies in the physical world are not animals, and when I become associated with a rock I usually find out later that there's more to it than just, "I like this rock." I was already looking deeper at my connection with Amazonite for reasons connected to Yog-Sothothery when the thing about garnets showed up.

But I thought the crystal structure was dodecahedral? Fictional stories don't need to be accurate about everything, so I went to look things up to be sure. It turns out dodecahedral and trapezohedral are both common structures for garnets, and can even both exist and combine in the same piece. This has me thinking about some things. Things I don't have words for right now, but I want what led me to these thoughts written down. 

I also have some reasons for wanting to take another look at amethysts. I understand their crystal structure is hexagonal. Most of what I know when it comes to amethysts is about mythology and religious symbolism. They work well with garnets, though, and I want to look at that from a different point of view.