True-Spinning Wheels: Numbers

When I look back to the earliest days of my relationship with them I realize I was okay with numbers right up to the time someone started slashing them, turning them into fractions. Things took a nasty turn at that point until I realized fractions could be decimalized. For a little while that made things okay again. But then letters began to insinuate themselves, disguise themselves as numbers, claiming to represent some "unknown" digit. "Just what the heck is going on here" was my likely response.

Since then the relationship has been one of those on-again, off-again type affairs. Numbers are great for pinning on jerseys, attaching to bike frames and handlebars; I wouldn't know the names of half the people at races these days if not for their numbers. On the other hand there are some insidious uses that drive me nuts - I'm a name not a number!

There I was watching the news the other night - yes, I should have been out riding, but that is beside the point right now. As I said, watching the news - specifically reports about the life, career and passing of President George Herbert Walker Bush. That is not how the headline read, though. Instead his name had been replaced with a number - No. 41. My thought was "this is major network news? and they can't even be bothered to spell out his name? Was it just me? Did no one at the station notice the disrespect? Was I being oversensitive?

I don't think my fifth period algebra teacher would have appreciated my starting of a question about x=(4+3i)(2+5i) with "hey mrs 5, about those letters there," especially when her name was Ms. Schuster. I mean look, present president excluded (you know my opinion of him by now) referring a President of the United States as No.1 to No. 44, is just not right. Leave the numbers on the jersey.

If you can't be bothered to show a little respect for someone else, why would you expect anyone else to show you any. That is the truth of how my wheels spin.