It's Still Life

05.07.23 Stream of Consciousness Saturday: Pick a Number

Does anyone remember Bo Derek? She was a 10. I’m not; I am a 9. That’s my number. It’s a numerology thing, nothing to do with hokus pokus, numbers I mean, actually numbers are my potrzebie. Do you know that word “potrzebie”?

My best and truest friend, Douglas, taught me that word. Douglas died last year, walking home from the village shop, the Sunday Telegraph tucked under his arm. He had a heart attack. Died where he stood. I’m glad it was fast. We should all be so lucky. Anyway, potrzebie was spotted by the editor of Mad magazine in the Polish language section of a multi-languaged “Instructional Use” pamphlet accompanying a bottle of aspirin. He was fascinated by unusual words, and as a gag he decided to insert “Potrzebie” randomly into the middle of Mad satires. It was a long-running gag. I’ll include a link at the bottom, if you’re interested. But I’m off track here a bit, so back to my number.

Yes. If you take my birthdate in single digits and add them together in this order (m+m+d+d+y+y+y+y) it equals 27, and if you add 2+7 it equals 9. Any number times 9 always comes back to 9, like 9×6=54 and 5+4=9, or 9×3-27 and 2+7-9. The number 9 takes over any number it touches. Nine is the last single cardinal number. It understands connections between things, it’s a humanitarian, and sees no difference between its neighbour and the person living on the other side of the world.

The number 9 protects ones heart, 9 might keep its distance, 9 watches and listens. My dad said I had over-developed peripheral vision, that I’d benefit from a more blinkered approach. That’s me: I am a nine.

Wikipedia: the origin of potrzebie. This essay is written for Linda Hill’s Saturday Stream of Consciousnesstopic: a number. Although this isn’t a stream of consciousness write in the true sense, it is what poured out of my head without much deviation. Some artwork is created using Midjourney AI, and is identified as such in the ALT text. Imagery and poems ©Misky 2023.