Time's Up

One of my son and daughter-in-law's best friends is a retired professor whom they affectionately call Uncle Bill. His wife passed away several years ago, and so Matt and Becca often have Uncle Bill over to eat a home-cooked meal with them. And he often returns the favor by taking them out to the restaurant of their choice. Uncle Bill has become like family to the kids, and he's been very excited about the arrival of their first child. He is also a numbers guy, not a math guy, a numbers guy ... he is fascinated with numbers and their significance in our lives. Uncle Bill firmly believes that certain numbers carry certain meaning and that they influence people in ways they don't understand or recognize. For months, Uncle Bill has been telling Matt and Becca that little Coraline would make her appearance into the world on 02-01-2012 ... and though at their doctor's appointment the evening before she was born they were told that there was little chance that she would come on her own, my granddaughter was indeed born at 12:09 p.m. on 02-01-2012 just as Uncle Bill said she would. I know ... it kind of creeps me out a bit, too.

I, unlike Uncle Bill, have never thought much about numbers or their significance; truth is, I've never cared much about numbers at all. I've never looked for some mystical hidden meaning behind dates or times ... well, until a few years ago when something weird began to happen to me regarding a certain sequence of numbers. I can't remember when it started, but I do know that it has happened every single day since it began ... I see the numbers 1-2-3-4. I can go for hours and not look to see what time it is, but every day when I glance at the clock, it's 12:34 p.m. Every night I wake up and look at the clock next to my bed, and it's 12:34 a.m. At least once every day and often several times during the day, I encounter them ... 1-2-3-4 ... numbers on a project I'm editing, the time an email was sent to me, the amount of a purchase I've made, and on and on.

When I first started noticing that I was seeing the particular sequence of numbers, it was sort of unnerving to me. And the longer it went on, the more I began to try and determine what the numbers meant and why I saw them every day. I went through several possible scenarios before coming up with the most rational explanation ... when I kick the bucket, it will be at 12:34, or it will be on a date that somehow corresponds to the numbers (but I haven't been able to figure that one out just yet). Yeah, I know ... very rational thinking on my part, but it was the best thing I could come up with. Because you see, for all my years of not thinking or caring about numbers, there absolutely could be no way that my seeing 1-2-3-4 every day now could be random ... there simply must be some meaning in them ... there simply must be.

Last night when I woke up and rolled over, I knew what time would be displayed on the clock by my bed before I even opened my eyes. As I watched the numbers shift from 12:34 to 12:35, it struck me how much difference one minute can make. The creepiness that washes through me when I see 12:34 immediately dissipates when 4 changes to 5. The longer I watched the clock, the more I thought about something my kids used to say when we played games together. If someone took too long to make a move or shuffle the cards or give an answer, one of them would invariably say, "Time's up." Life isn't a game, even though sometimes we treat it like it is. Time passes by ... years become months and months become days and days become hours and hours become minutes until our time is up.

Chances are good that I won't be able to figure out why the 1-2-3-4 sequence of numbers continues to appear in my daily life. And I've decided that though I am certain the numbers carry some sort of significance or meaning, and though it will probably continue to creep me out when I see them, it doesn't matter if I never understand the purpose within them. If they do indeed correspond somehow to the moment my time is up, I guess I'll know it then. Hmmm ... now that I think about it ... maybe the numbers are about food. I haven't had anything to eat tonight so I think I'll go eat 1 olive, 2 spoonfuls of hummus, 3 scoops of Cool Whip and 4 pieces of cheese. Come on ... you all know that's rational thinking in its truest form, and you're wishing you were at my house for dinner.

1-2-3-4 ... hmmmmmmmmm.