48. Seems a nice strong number, rife with mathematical possibilities. I like that it has so many possibilities for division into tidy subsets that naturally lend themselves to the reflection I always pause to take on this special day.
48/1 = 48 passages of the earth around the sun means I have had 48 cycles of the seasons, 48 Christmases, 48 first days of summer, 48 tidy little one year packages.
48/2 = 24. That is twenty-four two year packages. These aren't really that interesting. The mind doesn't naturally catalog according to biennial rhythms.
48/3 = 16. By at least the most base biological definition, my own adulthood started at 16. So as of today, 2/3 of my life has been spent in adulthood. It occurs to me that the roughly 2/3 of the surface of the earth is covered by ocean. But I think it is a mere coincidence that I feel so completely adrift and that land seems farther and farther away each year.
48/4 = 12. That is like having lived through 4 cycles of required education. I wish that school, as an institution, did not exist. Anticipation of graduation creates a sense of completion, as if to say "learning is done, no go do". This couldn't be farther from the truth and I am only just now realizing how wonderful it is to devote a life to learning, to pursue knowledge and experience with the same passion and importance as one pursues food and sleep. Not for the attainment of a certificate of completion, but because learning is a biological need of the brain. Unfortunately, the horrors of institutionalized learning leave most students with no preparation to continue their lessons in the classroom of life.
48/6 = 8. 8, 16, 24, 32, 40...each of those was a landmark year, in a quiet way. Nothing spectacular happened at those ages, but they stand out in my memory as years of strength. Perhaps this year holds good fortune as well.
48/8 = 6. Hmmm, this formula isn't really getting the juices flowing...perhaps, the magic of a 6 year cycle has yet to be revealed to me.
48/12 = 4. That is like having lived through 12 college degrees...except mine took 5 and 1/2 years, so maybe it is more like having lived through 12 sets of high school...which is about the most hideous way of cataloging one's past that I can imagine. Luckily, not every set of 4 years begin with wretched feelings of isolation and ends with the surety that one is a complete freak and social outcast.
48/24 = 2. That is like 2 whole lifetimes...which naturally makes one think in terms of before and after. And that thinking also does not lead to happy places.
48/1 = 48. The whole of it. The sum total of my entire existence, reduced to a single episode.. .
However, as a science geek, the number 48 is cemented in my psyche as merely being one-half of a 96 well plate...
