Ickies and shutters...

I lay on the couch watching the idiot box on mute; I regularly mute commercials.

This one? A commercial advertising online purchase of US stamps.

A gymnast cartwheels, handsprings, and gracefully maneuvers through an office distributing mail flexibly and with ease to its proper destinations. 

I thought, I used to be able to move like that...

 

As a child I loved to run and jump...

Tag was a regular pastime, especially Werewolf and Sardines...

Tackle football too; pick-up games in our neighbor's back yard, elementary school-aged boys and girls...

Bicycles galore; we'd line the street and race down the hill...

Snow sledding down that same big hill in the winter; sometimes in a train as we lay on the sleds with arms outstretched and our hands holding the back rails of the sled in front of us. The last person in the train got a whipping wild ride...

Ponies and horses; mounting them "Indian style," meaning we ran up behind the pony and jumped on its bare back by using our hands and arms to springboard ourselves from and over the pony's rump. Other times, we'd hang upside down around a pony's neck. The ponies seemed to enjoy it as much as us kids... 

"Camping" outside; we didn't really camp, we just slept outside. Sometimes I'd sleep outside alone in our side yard. I'd star gaze and pray for an outer space being to reveal itself to me or whisk me away to another planet. One night as I lay in a state of quasi-sleep in my sleeping bag, I felt something in the bottom of it. I pulled my legs up in my half-sleep state and dozed back under. The next morning as I pulled back the sleeping bag to get up, a little mouse ran out. I laughed. It stayed warm all night long... 

Hiking, mainly the Blue Ridge Mountains. Oh, how I still love the trails and mountains. Even if I'm never able to hike them again, I did at one time. A plethora of memories. Wide open spaces, an ocean of mountains. Bear, deer, snakes. Coyote, raccoons, possums. Hawks, buzzards, songbirds. Snow, ice, sleet. Rivers, creeks, lakes. Blueberries, blackberries, mulberries. Trees, wildflowers, downed logs. Winds, sunrises, sunsets. And other hikers...

Basketball, swimming, tire swings, skiing, cheerleading, dancing... 

I loved to move my body...  

All those visions ran through my mind as I watched the gymnast on the screen. 

And then the thought, Hm. That gymnast may not even be real. She might be AI generated.

A slight shutter flowed through my body.

~*~

I reckon I've always been a quasi-luddite...

When email began invading my life in 1999, I did not like it. But I eventually gave in...

This coincided with pay-at-the-pump gasoline.  I thought, Geez, someday we won't have to interact with humans at all to buy, trade, sell. As an act of rebellion, I'd walk in the store to pay. But I eventually gave in...

When flip cell phones arrived on the scene, I said "I will never have a cell phone." But then, I needed a cell phone to transact business as an MLM distributor for a nutritional product. So, in latter 2003, I gave in... 

After smart phones became the thing, I said, "I'll never have a smart phone." But then I needed a smart phone as a business owner of a pet sitting service. The maps app helped me map routes for myself and those who worked for me so we could visit clients in a timely manner, and some clients preferred texts as a means of communication. So, in early 2011, I gave in...

And now "artificial intelligence" is forefront on the invention train. I've thought of my blog as an act of rebellion; I own my typos, weird punctuation, run-on sentences, and unclear wordage. I recently thought that I may start looking up information in my hardbound set of Encyclopedia Britannica instead of depending on the screen for information. I say, "I'll never give in to AI (as far as composing my scribblings)," and maybe I won't... 

Right now, it feels quite icky...

Another shutter...

~*~

In 1999 when Hubby and I were lay leaders in The Way, our leadership asked me, "Did you get our email?"

I was perturbed and answered, "No. I haven't checked my email."

"Well, that's how we are going to be communicating now. So, you need to start checking it regularly." 

Eventually I did...

But I did pen a poem, perhaps as an expression of rebellion...

Hm. Perhaps that rebellion was a seed, combined with lots of journaling, that eventually blossomed into my decision in 2005 to leave The Way after 28 years of loyalty...

Ode to Email 

  

Twas a middle-aged lady who lived in a house.

Her functions were many; she wasn't a souse.

She was secretary, cook, cab driver too,

activities planner, home maintenance guru.

Doctor, nurse, janitorial clerk,

counselor, teacher, overseer of work.

Just a few of the functions for which she stayed perk.

Then to add to her list? The computer pimple.

Pop ups and adds, wrinkles and dimples!

Upgrade! Upgrade! It makes your life simple!

But beware of viruses; you need that program too!

And identity theft; so, your name is who?

Got too much spam? Pay more and it's through!

First there was junk mail to take up her time

and now more info to boggle the mind.

This middle-aged woman stepped back and breathed deep,

"It's time to make simple this communication heap."

She decided, yes, her email to keep

but now only checks it every two weeks.

So, if her attention you immediately need

please call her by phone to get sooner heed.

me

1999

~*~

Keb' Mo' with Keep It Simple...

~*~

A couple essays, worth the read, imo....

The AI Curse is Coming for the Creator's Economy by Peco and Ruth Gaskovski

Intelligence in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction by Charles Eisenstein

~*~

One a day...

Yesterday as my appointment ended with my herbal/qigong/meditation practitioner, she stated that 2025 is a Nine year.

My eyes lit up.

"What do you mean?" I asked.

She answered, "When the digits are added up, they equal nine. Nine is the completion of a cycle bringing in a new cycle the following year."

"Wow. I just wrote a blog piece about the number nine," I responded.

We both discussed our love and fascination with the number nine.

I then opened my journal and showed her my recent reduction calculations of the first day and last day of each month through the years 2023 and 2024. 

I'd handwritten them in columns; it was easy to see the patterns from month to month and year to year.

When each month or day reduces to 9, the pattern begins again at 1.

This all started for me on June 24th.

I wrote the date at the top of my journal entry: 06/24/24. 

The number 24 equals 6 when reduced by adding the two digits: 2 + 4 = 6.

6/24/24 became 666, which caught my attention and made me laugh.

Thereafter, I started adding the digits every time I dated a journal entry.

And a pattern emerged. 

A few months later, I learned that I was calculating using the Pythagorean theory of reduction. 

(I write more about the process here: Mighty Fine Number Nine...)

~*~

I typically don't make New Year's resolutions. 

However, I do typically think in terms of a theme for the year. 

Sometimes I'll remember the theme through the year; sometimes not so much, until something happens that brings the theme back to consciousness.

A few days ago, I thought, "I want to be ordinary." 

I chuckled, "That'd be a good goal and theme for the year -- to be ordinary." 

But there is a twist...

My "ordinary" is in the context of all the ordinary miracles that surround us every day...

From sunrise to sunrise and all that happens in between...

Life itself is an ordinary miracle...

As far as scientists can supposedly calculate, one human body contains 36 trillion cells...

That's pretty miraculous...

~*~

Currently, as I endeavor to grow/transform/alchemize my morning-wake-up-to-another-day-of-struggle dread into wake-up-to-another-day-of-mystery gratitude, I've set an intention to note and be aware of at least one spontaneity or serendipity each 24-hour period and to write it in my journal at the end of each day.

So, for yesterday, the unsolicited (and thus spontaneous) subject of 2025 being a Nine year was added to my serendipity list, and it prompted me to look up that subject today.

I landed on a website about Numerology.

From what I read: "The foundation of Numerology is the single digits 1-9..."

The practice uses the reduction method with which I have become so intrigued.

I did not know that; maybe I'm a closet Numerologist. 

I know little about Astrology and even less about Numerology.

Do I believe either influences our lives? 

I'm open to the idea, but I can't say I believe it as an absolute truth, can I?

~*~

Another major serendipity this week happened Sunday evening...

Two bucks in the back yard battled for their territory...

They fought and one ran away...

Then he ran back and fought again until he submitted, again running away...

Another wild-kingdom moment in our backyard...

The serendipity?

A real-life, real-time example of an observation from a film I watched last week, Things Hidden: The Life and Legacy of René Girard. 

In the film, Girard shares one difference between humans and animals.

Animals (typically?) do not fight to the death with their opponent (within their own species, I assume).

One animal always gives up before death, granting dominance to his competition.

Humans, on the other hand, will kill their own species to conquer a given territory or to win a desired outcome.

~*~

So, Carol, be aware of... 

The "spontaneities," the "serendipities"...

The "ordinaries," the "miracles"...

One a day...

I guess it is a goal and a theme...

But would I call it a "resolution?"... 

~*~

Sarah McLachlan with Ordinary Miracle...

~*~

In looking up the etymology of resolution, I discover another serendipity: "a process of reducing things into simpler forms."  

Brings to mind the reduction of numbers. Ha. 

Source: The Etymology of “Resolution":

"To loosen, release, explain"...

"A breaking into parts"...

"Resolution’s earliest 14th century definition drew from its direct Latin source resolutionem (perhaps via the Old French resolution), which meant 'a process of reducing things into simpler forms,' drawing from the notion of resolvere as a word for 'loosen' or 'untie.'"

"The phrase "New Year's resolution" was first used in 1780 (or perhaps earlier)..."

~*~

Mighty Fine Number Nine...

06/24/24... 

I wrote the date into my journal...

Oh wow. That equals 666. 

Ha. I wonder if others notice that. 

Surely some do. 

Thereafter, I habitually began adding up the month + day + year for each date.

As I tallied the days in my journal, a pattern emerged.

When I add together 6 + 6 + 6 (derived from 06/24/24), the sum equals 18; 8 + 1 = 9. 

Once a day reaches the reduction sum of 9, the pattern begins again the next day with the reduction sum of 1.

The next day after 6/24/24 is 06/25/24 = 6 + 7 + 6 = 19; 1 + 9 = 10; 1 + 0 = 1; a sum of 1.

This continues -- each reduction sum of the following day increases by 1 until it reaches 9 and then starts over again with 1. 

There is also a pattern that appears from the first day of a month to the first day of the following month, and there is a year-to-year pattern. 

I have not yet found a pattern from the last day of a month to the last day of subsequent months. 

"Huh?" a reader might ask. 

Here's an example of the monthly pattern: 

1/01/23 = 7. 

2/01/23 = 8. 

3/01/23 = 9.

4/01/23 = 1.

And the pattern continues until we reach a sum of 9 (again), and the pattern starts over with 1.

Here's an example of the yearly pattern:

1/01/23 = 7.

1/01/24 = 8.

1/01/25 = 9.

1/01/26 = 10 = 1. 

And the pattern continues until we reach a sum of 9 (again), and the pattern starts over with 1.

~*~

One morning a few months after discovering these patterns, I was listening to a guided mediation that uses Solfeggio sounds. 

Curious, I looked up Solfeggio frequencies and came across an article about their possible origin/discovery. 

The article mentioned the Pythagorean theory of reduction. My soul lit up! 

Oh! There's a name for this [this reduction of numbers]! All the way back to Pythagoras!

(I'm a mathematician and didn't know it. Ha.)

I've been intrigued with the numeral 9 for decades.

I enjoy playing Sudoku, usually based on the number 9.

But what I really like is the practice of "nine overs," also called "casting out nines," which is an old-school method for checking addition. 

And I discovered casting out nines provides a short cut to the reduction method I was using for dates. 

Example: 

7/17/24. I can add it up long hand (so to speak), such as 7 + 17 + 24 = 48 = 12 = 3. 

7/17/24. I can add it up short hand (so to speak), such as 7 + 8 + 6 = 21 = 3.

7/17/24. I can cast out nines. 7 + 2 = 9. That leaves 7 + 1 + 4 = 12 = 3.

What difference does it make, Carol?

None. "Difference" is a result in subtraction, not addition. Haha.

But seriously, what difference does it make?

What is the point?

Why does there have to be a point, other than I enjoy it?

Ha, maybe that is the point.

Yet, the myth part of me wants to believe there's more to it.

For one, patterns are all around us.

I've read we are pattern-seeking creatures.

Maybe all creatures seek patterns. 

~*~

I also tried the above with full dates, such as...

7/17/2024 = 41 = 5.

7/18/2024 = 52 = 6.

Though the sum is different (obviously by 2 because of the extra "20" which, when reduced, equals 2), the pattern continues.

~*~

Here's an example of using "nine overs" to check addition...

I chose the addends at random...

      712 = 1

+   634 = 4

+ 8216 = 8 

               4

                 

9562 = 13 = 4

First you add up the three numbers which equal 9562.

Next, with each addend, add together (horizontally) any digits that come to the sum of 9 and cross them out.

Next, with each addend, add together (horizontally) the rest of the digits that are left after the 9s have been cast out; add again if necessary, until the sum is reduced to one digit. 

Then add up vertically those sums and reduce their sum to one digit, or, as a short cut, cross out any digits that when added together equal 9. [The short cut is in the example: 8 + 1 = 9, so those two digits (8 and 1) are cast out.]

Go through the same process for the original sum (9562): add together (horizontally) any digits that come to the sum of 9 and cross them out, and then add together (horizontally) the rest of the digits that are left after the 9s have been cast out; add again if necessary, until the sum is reduced to one digit. 

If you have added correctly, the reduction sums will be the same (as shown in the example above where both reduction sums equal 4).

Walaa! Addition is checked. 

Ain't that cool!?!?

But it's not foolproof; if numbers are accidentally inverted, it doesn't work. 

Such as, if I accidentally wrote 9526 instead of the correct sum 9562, the reduction would still equal 4. But 9526 is incorrect. Thus, not foolproof.

~*~

NUMBEROCK with Skip Counting by Nine Song

 ~*~

    

I also thought of The Beatles song, Revolution 9 from The White Album which I owned as a teenager.

Here's some tidbits about the significance of The Beatles and the number 9: The Beatles and the story behind Number 9.

 ~*~