Dear friends,
As my 72nd trip around the sun draws to a close, this former math major, as he can’t help doing, is reflecting on the significance of the number. Two Julys ago I celebrated the milestone of concluding my 7th decade, one of those numbers ending in a zero that seem more and more traumatic as we age. And in pondering 72 my first thought was that it is a multiple of 12, and of how important 12 is in our everyday lives. Wikipedia informs us that, “the number twelve carries religious, mythological and magical symbolism, generally representing perfection, entirety, or cosmic order in traditions since antiquity. The product of the first 3 factorials, twelve is a superior, highly composite number divisible by 2, 3, 4, and 6..”
It is no accident then that 12, and its multiples, play such an important part in our lives and myths: 12 months in a year, inches in a foot, the packaging of bakery items and eggs, the 12 apostles, 12 signs of the zodiac, the 12 hours on a clock, the 24 hour day and the time zones, 360 degrees in a circle, etc. etc. etc. If it weren’t for the fact that humans are born with ten fingers, we’d be counting in base 12 too.
Anyway, 72 is one of those multiples, 6x12 and factored by 36, 24, 18, 12, 9, 8, 6, 4, 3, and 2. That’s 10 factors of what is after all just a 2 digit number. Anyway, that’s what old math majors think about sometimes. Which brings me to my main point.
I’m taking a tip from Facebook and soliciting donations to my favorite non-profit for my birthday. But being the eternal contrarian, I’m not filling out the suggested Facebook formalities, but have decided to cut out the rich middle man, and run my own show. How does 72 and numbers that end in zero figure into all this rambling, you ask? My goal is to raise $720 for Woodland Pattern, the best bookstore around. Many of you generously sponsor my reading at their annual fund-raising marathon each January, so I thought why not try a mid-year appeal as well. They are hanging in there, and recently re-opened for in person browsing. But like so many small businesses, they were damaged and threatened by the pandemic.
But to finagle my way around Facebook, I’m asking you to go directly to the “support” page on Woodland Pattern’s website and choose one of the several options for helping them out. Thanks.
https://woodlandpattern.org/support
And if you’re in the mood to buy yourself a present on my birthday, go here and order a book, if you didn’t pre-order one. They are now ready for delivery: https://www.watersedgepress.com/product/communique-poems-from-the-headlines/
Finally, since it’s my birthday (“at last!”, I hear you whispering to yourselves), and since this is MY blog, I’m going to post my little haiku written for my 70th birthday two years ago, and published by Cliff Dillhunt in Hummingbird. OK, I know haiku are not supposed to have titles and are supposed to have an element of nature, and that this may not even be a haiku, but it is 17 syllables in a 5-7-5 pattern. And 5, 7, and 17, as the old math major immediately thinks about, are all prime numbers. And as I’m sure you’ll agree, that’s enough for now. See you next time.
On Turning Seventy
fifty years ago:
the impossibility
of reaching thirty
(first published in Hummingbird XXX)