photo by emrank
numbers and chaos
number theory, from its humble beginnings as “one, two, many” has always existed as an attempt to make sense of the world we live in, give us some firm mental ground to walk upon, and, when we are lucky, offer us some predictive value. ironically enough, the field of mathematics has become a victim of its own success: the number and complexity of theories has grown so much that this noble attempt to reign in the chaos of direct experience has become just another branch of chaos itself! and so all is well in this non-sensible world, and no one can agree on what is really happening!
not surprising then, that the week in which i have chosen to dive a little deeper into chaos, the cosmic coincidence control center has leapt into action, leaving a spray of magic numbers in it’s wake, and not a little bit of chaos.
how this looks in real life
in addition to picking up some work two days a week, which i wrote about in monday’s motivator, i’ve taken up the task of dropping the boy off at preschool another three, which is playing havoc with my routines. for the past 23 weeks, strangely synchronized with joelly black’s thanks god it’s amnar day podcasts, i have been offering up my friday afternoon update, inspired by havi brooks’s friday check-in, which is a grand 11 weeks older than this tradition! i’ve been to getting up early, going through my morning routine, and then escaping the house before the chaos begins, driving to a safe haven where i can write in peace before rushing out the door just in time to teach some yoga.
that ritual is now a thing of the past, and universe has delivered that news to me emphatically. this morning the in-house internet connection decided to require a half hour of attention before i could get it to work, and then the young one woke up a good half hour early, to see if the sunflower seeds had broken ground (they had!) and, well, that was the end of that! then after pre-school drop-off i headed to my peaceful enclave only to encounter more internet problems: i could travel anywhere on the whole world wide web except my own site!
holy chao!
and so here i am in the middle of the afternoon, adrift on a sea of chaos, and feeling like
hey! i’ve lost all perspective and i can’t tell where the heck i am!
now, aside from mike dooley‘s dictum that just before massive change the most obvious thing you will notice is that absolutely nothing unusual is happening, i’m getting the image of a supersaturated solution, just waiting for the right crystallizing object to set off a chain reaction and create a whole lot of…what? well, that all depends on just what the heck this solution is composed of, and being stuck in the middle of it i can’t do much more than wonder. and take heart in the numbers.
auspicious numbers?
okay. long story short, because the long story is a story for another day:
when i was twenty three i discovered the number 23 and shortly thereafter the numbers 17 and 93. and monday morning i posted motivator number 17. this is friday afternoon update 23, as i mentioned before, and it is also post number 93 since i started this blog six months ago! and as always when the cosmic coincidence control center is involved, i take great heart when any of my magic numbers comes up, and even more so when i hit the trifecta!
tomorrow can take care of itself
and so here i am, looking out into a vast field of unpredictability, chaos some would say, thick pea soup perhaps. the predictive value of numbers has been completely shredded, no one knows what is happening next, and i’m sitting here smiling. universe has my numbers, and it is waving them in front of my face. the opera ain’t over ’til the fat lady sings, and i don’t think she has even entered the theater!
press publish and walk out the door!
{ 4 comments… read them below or add one }
Havi Brooks (and duck) 03.27.09 at 3:20 pm
Whoah. It’s weird when routines get squooshed.
Passing the baton over to the afternoon shift … good to see you — it’s a sign it’s Friday!
Havi Brooks (and duck)´s last blog post..Friday Check-in #34: “Arriving by Iron Horse” edition
Ran 03.28.09 at 8:46 am
I’m surprised to hear that Mike Dooley quote — In my experience, I’ve had really odd coincidence things happen right before a big major shift and change in my life. If I wasn’t paying close attention to these sort of messages, they’re the type one average joe might miss entirely. But they happened a LOT in the month of October and in the last 3 days they’re starting again. So I’m cautious and aware and wondering what’s next?
for example, way back on enneking prkway I dial Clayton to leave him a voice mail. somehow my message gets truncated and the recording keeps asking me over and over to leave a message and press 1. I finally get through a cull message and say “Clay, sorry this message is so disjointed” and look up to see that I’ve made it all the way now to “Clay Auto Center” on the WRPkway. as I say the word “Clay” there’s the sign.
Similarly, as I’m typing this very coincidental story I thought – I hope the phone doesn’t ring and siturb me from being able to finish my thought and – RING – it’s YOU calling to tell me about an odd coincidence down on Hyde Park Ave….
see what I mean.
Or that when I was out with Sheri the other night she is telling me about how her band did a cover song of the Cranberrries “Zombie” (an oldie but a goodie, but not one you hear much anymore, right?) I get in the car, turn it on, what comes on? you got it.
it’s just little things like that that are perking up all over the place and I have a funnnnnnnny feeling they’re going to be happening more and more.
keep your eyes and especially ears open.
(and thanks for taking over the morning drop offs to preschool!)
peace in chaos.
James | Dancing Geek 03.28.09 at 6:57 pm
Pretty numbers! Wooo.
Now I want to know how you got yours, and more selfishly how I can get me some of my own!
17 and 23 are prime, but 93 is 31×3 where 31 is prime (and so is 3). Not sure if that means anything, but I like playing with numbers.
James | Dancing Geek´s last blog post..It’s ok to have the same stuff keep coming up?!
chas 03.29.09 at 6:58 am
@havi nice to see you in this neck of the woods. say hi to stu! this whole routine squooshing thing is actually going to be very fertile, i think…like that crack that let’s the light get in…
@ran yeah! the synchronicities! that telephone thing was pretty eerie…a real ccseed moment!
@james the thing is definitely a story for another day, and 17 is kinda like 23′s little brother. 93 however, comes from aleister crowley (mwua ha ha ha), and relates to the new aeon, the aeon of the child. that’s an easy google search.
as far as getting your own…you probably already have some…read randi’s comment!