An Ordinary, Smallish Number

Hanged Man Graffiti Mashup, the Number 42


In 1993 Douglas Adams wrote, "It had to be a number. An ordinary, smallish number, and I chose that one." I've been thinking a lot about 42 (it's my 42nd birthday). I mashed up this image of a reversed and inverted lower half of the Hanged Man Tarot card next to the number 2 because I needed to create a visual for this Hanged Man state of existence. Portraying 42 this way has been something that has been bugging me for months. Thanks to my pal, Danielle who helped me flip and invert the card image!

Life shifted this year and while I still have little time to write, I am grateful to no longer be hanging from the Gallows Pole. Which brings me to the musical connection my mind reaches for...my beloved Led Zeppelin.

I love the history Robert Plant uses to introduce this performance of Gallows Pole. I was lucky enough to see him (early birthday present) last month for my first time ever at the Greek Theater in Berkeley!


Along with 42, my numerology background kicks in:  4+2=6. That's also our current Universal Year:  (2+0+1+3=6). If you don't know about Universal Years, here is something (ignore the paragraph about September--that's junk I don't know where they got that from). I hate doing that with a source. Kind of a shortage of good sources out there.

I thought it appropriate to challenge myself to 42 acts of some sort of giving, especially since this year I'm trying to focus more on actions vs. dollars. But despite what Douglas Adams said, 42 is a big number. So I've reduced it to 6 acts of giving.

I love this description by Joanne at Sacred Scribes of the attributes of 6:  the Mother, the humanitarian, the giver and of course, balance too. The need for balance never seems to lose or gain power, it just continues to shift how it plays out upon your life.

I'd like to invite those reading on this journey, especially women who are facing 42 along with me this year. We're all in this together. It's just an ordinary, smallish number. Really.

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