Numbers

The world is FULL of numbers.  I mean FULL.  There are numbers every where you look.  Numbers on the clock.  Numbers on the cable box.  The thermometer.  The train schedule.  The bus.  The grocery store.  Mail.  Books.  The phone.  Keyboards.  Your toothbrush.

Ev-re-where.  Everywhere!

So can anyone tell me why some numbers seem to have this eerie power over me more than others?

I never rarely cringe when I'm at the grocery store buying apples (though off season prices can be yikes!)  I like apples.  They're good for me.  So I buy them.  I grab a few (complete with the numbers on the bar code, and on the price tag) and toss them gently into my cart.  They're yummy.  Recipes are full of numbers, but those don't seem to stop me from eating.  Usually.

I sometimes cringe when I'm shopping in general, as sticker shock is pretty regular these days.  But I never rarely question prices when shopping.  I see what I need, I buy it.  Sometimes I even buy things just cause I want them.  I usually cringe when I get to the numbers at the gas station, but that's another story.  I score my students spelling tests and add a number to each one.  I attach numbers to math tests, to pages, to all sorts of things.  None of those numbers are any big deal, even though they are not taken lightly.

So why, why, does one specific number seem to throw a wrench into my whole world?  Why do I avoid that number like it's an infectious disease?  Why, when I saw that number for the first time in five months, did I have a complete internal meltdown?

If the world is full of numbers, why can I coexist peacefully with 99% of them, but one, little, three-digit number has the power to rock my world in all the wrong ways?

"Scales only have the power which we bestow upon them.

Imagine if I said my self-worth is determined by the toaster."

-- unknown