It is customary to go into an extended period of nostalgia, summing up a lifetime of remembrances, memories of the life lived, lessons learned, while pontificating on and on about the perceived wisdom while marking a landmark birthday. Usually that would come on the birthdays ending in fives or the zeros. I did not do so when I turned 60 last year holding true to my contrarian impulse. Unfortunately, you did not dodge the bullet. I just delayed it a year.
Numbers have been an important part of my life, partly due
to my chosen profession, partly due to interest, although my interest did not
translate to talent or natural insight.
60 marks in our minds a landmark in our internal timeline because
the number ends with the number zero; that zero stands
out because we chose a base ten numerical system early on in our mathematical evolution.
60 also leads with a six, which is divisible by 2 and 3, making the number
divisible by the first two primes.
60 is categorized as a highly composite number (sometimes called anti-prime )
because it is the sum of its unitary divisors (excluding itself): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Highly_composite_number
·
60 is the smallest number divisible by the numbers 1 to 6:
there is no smaller number divisible by the numbers 1 to 5.
·
60 is also divisible by 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 10, 12, 15, 20, 30, 60, demonstrating its
claim to being highly composite.
·
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/60_(number)
To jump from 60 to 61, however, is jumping from the ease and
flexibility of a highly composite prime to the depths of inflexibility, a prime
number.
- 61 the 18th prime
number. The first 17 primes are: 2, 3, 5, 7, 11, 13, 17, 19, 23, 29, 31,
37, 41, 43, 47, 53, 59.
- 61
is also a twin prime with 59. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Twin_prime
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/61_(number)
It gives the number a certain cachet, an air of
mystery. Mathematicians are fascinated with the primes and prime numbers are also
the basis for cryptographic encryption.
By that token, this 61st year of my
having the ability to fill my lungs with air portends to be one of uniqueness.
Although this omen may or may not be wholly beneficent.
There are other numbers from my birthday
metric that could also be examined. My birthday: March 27, 1961 has some interesting
numerical significance: March is the third month of a year and 27 is 3to the
third power. The year 1961 in the Gregorian calendar is not a prime, but it is
the product of 37 and 53, the 12th and 16th prime, a
simple composite number.
If I was a real mathematician I would propose some conjecture
about some mathematical profundity from those numbers, but I am not a real
mathematician, nor did I stay in a Holiday Inn Express last night, so I won’t.
Here comes that pontification
on wisdom.
As I look upon both my
external and internal lives, I am proud of the equanimity that I have consciously
tried to cultivate, as it came to me late in life.
While my personal
philosophy is a bricolage of formal philosophies, life experiences, hot takes,
and cold reason, I have become content in the maelstrom because of the equanimity
cultivation. It is a work in progress, as is everything.
All that I am are a
tribute to every one of the friends and family who unknowingly or knowingly impacted my life in all my 61 years. Your
fingerprints are all over my life, my mind, and my behavior. You have made me
who I am; ergo, you are as guilty of shaping me as me. I am not sure if that is good or bad. I just know
that it is. So, I thank you.
I look forward to seeing
the 19th prime birthday, which is 67. But one birthday at a time,
prime or non-prime.
I will do my best to live
my prime year of 61 well. If Amazon doesn’t sue me for copyright infringement
first.
Peace.
