Celebrating the Odd

Today is an odd number lover's delight. The date of 05-07-09, those lovely consecutive odd numbers, is apparently quite unique and something that occurs extremely rarely. I enjoy numbers as long as they are not tied up into mathematics. But as symbols, they are really quite lovely. We have the Arabic scholars of the Middle Ages to thank for the zero - great idea, the concept of nothingness. But who decided that a number two would be this wonderful clockwise curve with a base. And who decided that it could be written in so many different ways and still be legible. After all, there is the straght-bottom, the looped bottom, the humped bottom, etc. But the top, that wonderful flourish, tends to remain the same and marks it as a number 2.

People are much the same. We have the basic flourish that marks us as human. But that bottom - oh that bottom. That's where the problems can arise. And it's when the bottom tries to become as elaborate as the top that problems arise. Perhaps remembering that the bottom, although essential, is the smaller part of the whole might help all of us to remain a bit more humble. It is one of the reasons why I click on my astronomy picture of the day first thing every day. I might be the center of my own, very small universe. But I thank all Powers that my part is as small as it is and that someone/something caused the formation of the wonders that are our full universe. I can't ever forget the concept of Spirit being the love that makes the sun and stars dance. What an amazing thought...

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A comment was made about how frequently odd numbers can appear this century. I quote here from the UK newspaper that originally published this story:

Numbers lovers (well, this one number lover) say the rare occurrence is an excuse to celebrate.

'The previous stretch of six dates like this started with 1/3/1905 - 13 months after the Wright Brothers' flight,' said Ron Gordon, the Redwood City, California teacher who keeps on enthusiastically promoting these numerical holidays, like Square Root Day on 3/3/09.
Gordon is offering a prize of $579 to those who celebrate the date with the most zeal or who get the most people involved in an Odd Celebration. Good luck.>>

Hopefully this will help clarify what I was speaking about in the post.