Rather like an elephant

What is mathematics?
          These days I am outside of mathematics looking in and my views of the subject are more complex than during the days when I was a professor and mathematician. Back in my math-prof days -- when I moaned about those who held the view that mathematics is merely computation -- I tried to explain to uncompreheding friends the role of calculation within mathematics with this analogy:  computation is to mathematics as spelling is to poetry.  But those for whom computation is all of their mathematics do not accept this argument.  Indeed, I myself now have the notion that one can navigate life competently without algebra -- much as I get along without Spanish or Chinese. But I regret not knowing them -- they are, like algebra, among the world's important languages.