Numbers

It was in the mid-70's when I bought the Cat Steven's album "Numbers (A Pythagorean Theory Tale)". As Wikipedia says:

The idea shaped into a fantastic, spiritual musical set on the planet Polygor. In the story, there is a castle with a number machine. This machine exists to fulfill the sole purpose of the planet: to disperse numbers to the rest of the universe -- 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, and 9 (but notably, not 0). The nine inhabitants of Polygor, called "Polygons", are Monad, Dupey, Trezlar, Cubis, Qizlo, Hexidor, Septo, Octav, and Novim. As the last lines of the book say, they "followed a life of routine that had existed for as long as any could remember. ... It was, therefore, all the more shocking when on an ordinary day things first started to go wrong." The change takes the form of Jzero, who comes from nowhere as a slave and eventually confuses everybody with his simple truth

Whoa. As much as I loved Cat's album, it didn't do much for my "math phobia" but did help me get through high school. In 1976, I even named my shaggy little black dog Jzero, based on one of Cat's songs from this album. But ever since 9th grade algebra (my first and only C+), I have been literally afraid of numbers! I don't like taxes and check books, but I consider my own numbers carefully:

First there were five. Then, there was only one. Then the original five turned into four. Eventually it went back to one. Then the number one turned into two. But only in a matter of a short time, the number went from two, to three, to four! Then, the number went back to three.

Most people want the number "two" in their lives, which is a wonderful and possible thing. I know for me it'll always be three, for ever and ever. Still, these days the numbers on my wish list go from one to two, then on to four, to five, and up to ten, yet my wish-list of numbers has the potential to rise to 6.5 billion.

I am not afraid of numbers any more. And I named my current dog after a TV show, not an album based on numbers.

C.A.B.

The three most important initials in every girl's life......