“In fourteen hundred and ninety two, Columbus sailed the ocean blue…” a very bad thing for the Native Americans it turned out, and in 1942 Hitler threatened the Jews of the world with annihilation at a speech in the Berlin Sportpalast in January of that year. 1942 and 1492. What does it mean that my house number is 2914 Arkady Street? Who is doomed to die?
Don’t you think I know how crazy that is? Numbers can’t possibly mean something like that. Can they? But all my life I have been plagued by a confluence of numerological signs and connected meanings. And I don’t think I am alone. Perhaps it is even a fairly common mental disorder. Triskaidekaphobia is an irrational fear of the number 13. And Friggatriskaidekaphobia is fear of Friday the 13th. Is this a rational fear? Maybe it was for the Knights Templar, because on Friday the 13th in 1307 Philip IV, King of France arrested virtually all the Knights, confiscating their fortunes and torturing them, then putting them to death after forcing them to confess to blasphemies. And this was not the origin of the superstition. There were 13 people present at the feast of Passover in the Upper Room on Nisan 13 (of the Hebrew calendar), the day before Jesus was executed on Good Friday. When the 13th person left the other 12, that person was Judas Iscariot. Either numbers do have consequences, or the world is just as crazy as I am.
Okay, so it’s the latter. The world is just as crazy as I am. But it is not all bad and dark omens. I was born during a blizzard in Mason City, Iowa in 1956. In 1985, the car I was driving had the mileage meter roll over to the point that the last four digits readable were 1956. That same day I made love to a woman for the first time in my life. I kept watching the odometer. In 1994 the last four digits (in a different car) rolled to 1956 on the way home from a date at the Pizza Hut in Pearsall, Texas. The woman I had dated married me the next January in 1995 and the first four digits turned to 1956 nine months later on the day my oldest son was born.
And Douglas Adams fans like me all know that the answer to Life, the Universe, and Everything is 42. This magic number is revealed in The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy trilogy that has more than three books in it. Do I actually believe there is anything to this numerology claptrap? Are we connected to the universe by numbers and equations through science, particularly physics? Do numbers have mystical values that can be interpreted for our own benefit? No. Yes. And maybe, I just don’t know for sure yet. I believe in magic. But I also believe in science. Equations measure reality, but only through words can we define it. Did I make you laugh? Did I reveal myself to be totally bonkers? Did I make you actually think? Again… No. Yes. And maybe, I just don’t know for sure yet. Unfortunately, there were 513 words in this essay… so I added this extra sentence.
Catch a Falling Star 
If it makes you feel better, a baker’s dozen has thirteen doughnuts, pastries, etc., so that is a very good thing. My view is there are too many things to worry about than random numbers being omens.
Worrying about nonsense is what I do, though. I used to be a middle school English teacher. I’m pretty sure that fits several descriptions of bizarre mental illnesses. I could easily become a dancing Frenchman of Maine if I let things like numbers go out of control and give me a shock. I have consulted professionals about the problem… of course, they were middle school Math teachers… so maybe that’s not helping.
“Dancing Frenchman of Maine?” That is a new one. I am an actuary by trade, so I am into numbers. There is an elegance to them. I regret that our kids are allowed to use calculators on tests, as they miss that elegance and basic knowledge. When I took complicated math tests, if you found yourself doing complex arithmetic, you were doing the problem wrong. If toward the end, you were diving 4 by 2, then you were on the right track.
I said “dancing” Frenchmen instead of “jumping” for the sake of elegance, but it is a rare mental health condition. Here’s a link; https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jumping_Frenchmen_of_Maine
I believe numbers do hold some value when playing lotto. I grew up with a grandmother who played numbers and everything revolved around them.
Pythagoras was part of a math cult who worshipped numbers in secret meetings in caves. Valuing numbers beyond what’s reasonable is not an uncommon thing.