Celebration 5

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nine

5

Woe is me! Break out the tiny violins! I am in full-whine mode!

Numbers, numbers, numbers, numbers. Add, divide, multiply, subtract. Take note, shift columns. Despair. For months, the numbers have been backhanding me, to and fro, up and down. Bullying, mocking, teasing mercilessly, always heading in the wrong direction. Property taxes have increased. Life expectancy has plummeted. The bank account is steadily dwindling. With my illness, work, or a job, isn’t really feasible, though occasionally I sell a book or two (not mine, mostly scholarly or collectible tomes), which brings in a few bucks. And inflation! Everything costs more. Just a few years ago I seldom paid more than a dollar a pound for chicken thighs. Nowadays we’re lucky to pay four times that amount. And so it goes.

But, a few weeks ago, the numbers finally stepped in firmly on my side! In May, scans showed that my lung cancer had spread to the brain; nine small lesions were found, cause for concern, as you might imagine. Now, nine is a fascinating number, majestic, mystical, some might say. Multiply it by two, and you get 18. Add the two digits that comprise 18, one and eight, and you get 9. Multiply it by three: 27. Total the two digits forming 27, and you get, yes, 9. Multiply it by four, by five, by six, by seven, eight or nine. Fifteen. Twenty. Add the digits that comprise the sum and you return to nine. Interesting, no?*

But I’ve digressed. Nine is not the digit one wants to hear when discussing the number of lesions manifested in one’s brain. That was the situation a few months ago. But now, apparently, the numbers have taken my side, and I no longer need concern myself with that figure. Recent scans revealed that the lesions have resolved; they’ve disappeared! In other words, the treatment is working. Oh, the cancer is still with me elsewhere, but after months of bad report after bad report, the news is finally trending in the right direction.

So today I praise the magical number nine, which, in my case, has transformed itself into nothing, a circumstance most worthy of commemoration. What numbers do you celebrate, and why?

*If this sounds familiar, you may have read my essay originally posted here in February 2014.

67 thoughts on “Celebration 5”

  2. Nine is my favorite number, and now I see there’s clearly a reason for it. All hail the magic of nine, and may it multiply in your favor elsewhere. xo

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  6. Less is More (Life). Hope you keep in the lesser direction, Robert. Nine is a Favorite of mine. First, because it is # of my birth date. Second, because the Beatles did a song — cannot recall which one at present — where in the lyrics they repeat the #9. Being quirky, I like odd numbers.

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  8. I’m so glad to hear this news, Bob. 9 is my birth day, so I have a special affinity for nine (except when it represents brain lesions, but if they disappear, so much the better). I also find 23 and 11 cropping up in my life constantly. One child was born 11-22 in the 11th hour.
    Nonetheless, here’s to your disappearing 9! Many more disappearances and remissions are on the horizon for you, I hope!

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  12. I hadn’t really thought about it before, but Matthew was born on the 9th day of June 1998, Cam was born in the 9th month of 2000, and you and I were married in the 9th month of 2020, so this number has a long track record of being good to me… ❤️

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  13. Yay, Applause for you and your healing process!! Subtracting these numerous bad cells is a very positive thing, my friend. May the numbers keep diminishing and a zero amount of pathology be the total sum.

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  15. For Four

    No single signal declared four!
    yet time and again I seem blessed
    with all that number symbolizes
    for my collective erratic parts

    Four walls providing security
    four legs keeping table stable
    four paws delivering cat into lap
    four wheels rolling in adventure

    Perhaps my affinity stems from family
    two parents plus two children
    the model of my upbringing
    the model replicated as adult

    Numerology tags four discipline/order
    (not always my behavior pattern)
    nodding to seasons, basic elements,
    compass points, moon phases

    I cannot sum birth date numerals
    nor tag specific lifeline dates
    as logic for my affinity —
    but I’ve no hesitance declaring

    I’m for four!

    SJaeschkeKendrick

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  18. So glad with you, Bob! I’m no doubt an oddball, but I praise “one” — the peace of my largely solitary life, “one” in the company of my single old cat, “eight” in the company of my sweet hens. To which I might add: a hen’s feathered thigh is priceless when you’re holding her in your arms or admiring her from afar. 🙂 I know you wholly agree.

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  27. I feel like there’s some sort of ‘Poet’s Disease’ going around. For months I struggled with fever, severe abdominal pain, bleeding etc etc. Endless tests. Endless blood draws. Endless numbers. Beeps beeps beeps. At last, they’ve got it: Pelvic Inflammatory Disease. Huzzah! An answer! Now they’re saying the antibiotics aren’t working. They say it’s genetic, a bad roll of dice. Now more blood draws, more pills, higher higher numbers. Will I need emergency surgery? Who knows!

    Robert, thank you for years of beautiful words. Thank you for years of writing down your feelings in such poignant fashion as they’ve sometimes felt like my own. Also, for all the poet’s out there,

    stay brave.

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  30. 42, and long before Douglas Adams. It has randomly made its appearance throughout my life, and I still haven’t figured out why. Sometimes I think it’s 6 (4+2) struggling to show its face, because 6 does appear nearly as frequently. But, Adams says 42 is answer to the “Great Question” of “Life, the Universe and Everything” so 6 is probably just hinting at 42.

    And hurray for great news!

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