Fun with numbers

So, last April, around the anniversary of the death of my Aunt Maxine, I started seeing 11:11 every day when I looked up at the clock. Not every time, of course, because 11:11 only comes up twice a day (for those of us on a 12-hour clock), but sometimes twice a day. This went on every day for at least two weeks and it was rather unsettling.

What was the Universe trying to tell me? Something significant, or just that random chance sometimes gets stuck, throwing "heads" 85 times in a row?

Then I remembered that my Aunt Maxine's birthday was November 11 and I wondered if it was her saying, "Hey, I'm still around. Don't worry so much." This was a comforting thought and the creepiness factor went away, although the 11:11's didn't. I kept seeing them a lot for weeks after, and I still see them several times a week, but now they just make me smile.

Then 11:11 showed up on today's Post Secret. I thought, "What the frijole--???"

So I got online to see what this meant. Apparently, there are a universe of beliefs around the coincidence of seeing 11:11. This secret refers to one of the more charming ones, that if you look up and see 11:11 your wish will come true. There are a whole bunch of other beliefs.

For instance, there's these guys:

Nice song, but I find reducing tragedies to numerical equations to be really quite disgraceful. It stikes me as rather unsavory to say all these horrific things are "fated" and to use them to flog your own purpose. I'm sure if something else horrific happens in the next few days, these folks will find some other magic equation to work into their next video.

And then there was this guy:

????? I mean ????? I did scurry to my tarot deck to see what card was 11. It's Justice. I thought, "If it's the Hanged Man I'm going to mess myself." Because for me that relates to 9/11 and I just didn't know if I could stand that. The Hanged Man was 12. I was quite relieved, to say the least. And no, I haven't blogged about this because I'm not ready and because I can't do it yet without thinking that I am somehow using 9/11 for my own purposes. Just like the folks in that video, above.

Mr. Fuller is right about it being more important for me to find my own answers, but I was left feeling deeply unsettled. I looked for some more data points to consider.

And I found this guy:

Much better soundtrack. Much better use of the theme. I am comforted.

So, God bless all those in harm's way or those still staggering from past blows. Let's all stop wasting precious time and remember that we're all human and we need each other very, very much to make it through the muck and the mire of life.

And Maxie, if that was you, I love ya, babe.

Ohh, the hours we are seperate
11:11 is the precious time we wasted
So let the blind fight the blind and see,
As the fall takes over summer
Bringing the lattice roses
And as winter brings the spring rain
And to the end of this world,
We'll all load in a dump truck of human
11:11