Today is 11/11/11, a date that comes around every 100 years. When digits line up that way like little soldiers we snap to attention. All those ones seem auspicious, somehow. Did the Mayans have something to say about this (or is that next year’s numbers game)? Surely this marks an occasion to launch some new venture or reflect on our lives. Or hold a sale.

Why do we invest meaning in numerical oddities, or for that matter in any relic or strangely burned piece of toast? For a social outfit called The Corduroy Appreciation Club (the name says it all), the number 11 actually holds  iconographic powers as it resembles the striping pattern of corduroy wales. Three elevens? For fun-loving CAC members that’s the trifecta — I salute their whimsical rationale for companionship.

For the rest of us with more diversified wardrobes, today is as good a time as any to remember what we might have been, and still might be if only we had the nerve. And it’s an excellent time to acknowledge what others have done with their lives — including sacrificing them on the field of battle so the rest of us can continue to exercise existence in peace and comfort. Nov. 11, 2011 just happens to be Veterans’ Day, after all.

We’re veterans of our own lives. We’ve survived this long … but for what purpose? To chase and covet and fret? Every day is a new opportunity to communicate what we want to be. The most eloquent communication is not conveyed by numbers or even, oddly enough, by words. Actions say it all.

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