Teaching Calculus for many, many years, “limit theory” was something that I spent a lot of time with. These days, the idea of “limits” has taken on totally new meaning. We are limited in our activities, there are limits to certain items that you can purchase, there are limits to how many people can be in how many places at the same time. Many businesses that once were upon 24-7 now have significantly limited hours, if they have hours at all.

We are all looking forward to the lifting of the “limits”, much has been written and discussed about the beginnings of the reopening of the state, the town, the nation. What it is going to look like will vary dramatically by the population, by the limits that are placed even as the limits are gradually lifted. How, exactly, will it work to dine out again, even in an outdoor space, if masks are required or even suggested, by the patrons? What is the “magic number” that a restaurant might need to make tables with limits even viable and what is the point where they again do better with in house dining while the take out or delivery part of the business slips back and becomes limited, or even non existent?

There are other limits that have either been reached or are being significantly approached. Patience for one, the patience that comes along with the idea that time, the most fleeting of things and one of the very few things that you can never get back, continues to move along notwithstanding. I, for one, am beginning to lose whatever patience I have. I think I reached my personal limit a day or two ago. I realized I am fed up with lack of social interaction, with trying to teach without being able to read the crowd, spending hours writing very specific approaches and subsequent tasks, then writing solutions and explanations to those tasks, only to have them consistently ignored or overlooked, all by people who have more often than not, demonstrated their abilities and capabilities when in person. I’ve reached my limit on bad weather (as I’m writing this, there is a freeze warning in place, on May 8th….really??), it seems to rain more than it seems to be sunny, I reached my limit with feeling restricted about where I can go and more, where I can go safely.

All of this brings me full circle back to limit theory, the harsh reality is that the idea of “limit” in calculus presents something that is approached, occasionally but rarely “reached” so with that, I’ll try to remember that while the limits we are currently experiencing are being tested every day, from a variety of different angles, we need to examine the ebb and flow of why, to look at the curves, to examine the behavior and to remember that continuity does not exist with a limit!