FEBRUARY 2022

February 2022. Written another way, it's 022022. I'm no numerologist, but maybe there's something in all those twos and zeros. There's a joke doing the rounds on social media about how this year is really called "twenty-twenty too". In other words, it's another 2020 - which wasn't the greatest year ever. Those cynics might have found some humour in that comment, but a lot of us would rather not joke about such things.

Instead, let's turn to Chinese culture, where two is considered to be a lucky number. It has associations with the idea of harmony, and the blessing of "double happiness". If one two means double happiness, we can interpret this to mean that four twos on our calendar equate to even more happiness (using some sort of mathematical logic).

Speaking of mathematics and such, two is considered a magic number in nuclear physics. A magic number is the number of nucleons arranged into complete shells within the atomic nucleus, whereby atomic nuclei with the magic number are more stable than those without it. Which means absolutely nothing to most of us, but we can choose to go along with the magic part, even if the rest sounds like a foreign language.

Furthermore, mathematics tells us that two is "the oddest prime" because it's the only even prime number. Many would say there's nothing wrong with being odd, so that could be understood as another compliment for the number two. Four twos, then, would mean that we'll have eight helpings of oddness in February. There are those who would appreciate such oddness, while others would say we've had quite enough oddness already for a single lifetime.

Given that we've been wearing masks for two years and drinking wine with friends over Zoom, it's a valid point that we've had our share of oddness. And if the numbers mean that February will get even odder, maybe it's a good thing it's the shortest month of the year.

All in all, you might argue that it's just a bunch of numbers, and not even worth thinking about. It's easy to write it all off as just another month in just another year.

But maybe, just maybe, there's another way to look at "twenty-twenty too". Because there are all those sayings about second time lucky, and everything being better the second time around. Of course, there's no way to redo 2020, because our calendar (and time itself) doesn't work that way. So, we can't erase and replace the year when our lives changed so much. But maybe we can start to pick up, move forward, and live in some kind of normal.

Whatever happens, we'll have to wait a while before we can live through a month with such an interesting date. Who knows where we'll be in March of 3033?