Missive #44

No, not really. Well, probably not. I really don’t know how many missives I’ve written here… forty-four sounds like a good guess, but the probability of that guess being accurate is slim… probably about one chance in forty-four. 

So… what’s in a number you ask? I know… you didn’t ask. 

 

Allow ME to ask… what’s in a number? The number forty-four for example.

 

Forty-four is the country code for making calls to the United Kingdom. Do you need to chat with the Queen? Easy-Peasy… dial 44 followed by her private number. 

 

Maxwell Smart… remember him? He often spoke with Agent 44… who was the guy always doing his spy stuff from a small, cramped place… like a trash can, grandfather clock, potbelly stove, or the like. 

 

Forty-four is also the caliber of a handgun made famous in a 1971 movie starring Clint Eastwood. “Do ya feel lucky? Well… do ya punk?” 

 

Well actually, I do feel lucky today… and stop calling me punk.

 

Two scores and four (i.e., 44) is also the formula number of a popular Vicks cough suppressant. I’m assuming there were 43 previous formulas and none of them were up to snuff. I’ve been told that if you go to the dollar store, you can sometimes find Vicks Formula 43.

 

If you are a fan of Roman Numerals… forty-four is written XLIV. 

 

Did you know that archeologists working in Rome have found two early attempts at creating a cough suppressant?  They were labeled Vicks Formula III and Vicks Formula IV.

 

Forty-four is also a repdigit number… simply put its representation consists of only multiple occurrences of the same digit. Of course, you already knew that, but now you know what to call such a number. (I believe that’s called a factoid – a trivial piece of information… not unlike everything else you’ve read thus far).

 

But I’m not here today to write about any of the above. And the following is not a factoid for sure…

 

Laura and I have reached our forty-fourth wedding anniversary… it’s today. To be more precise, it will occur about thirty minutes past ten o’clock this morning… that’s my best estimate of the exact moment in time… when Father Cotter pronounced us husband and wife. I didn’t think to check my watch at that moment… pretty sure if I had it would have raised a few eyebrows.

 

Laura and I were married at Star of the Sea Catholic Church at the Virginia Beach oceanfront on this day in 1978… and Father Cotter was a young priest from Ireland that we really liked. 

 

“You may kiss your bride,” he said.

 

“Just a second, I need to check my watch first,” I replied.

 

No, not really, but I do wish I knew what the time was. 

 

Today is January 7th. Happy 44th Anniversary to the love of my life. Forty-four years we’ve been married… and we’ve known each other even longer… almost forty-seven years. My gosh… where does the time slip away to? Simply put, my life began on the day I found her and my being became complete on the day we were married. 

 

Truth be told, from the very beginning, everything about her told me that she was the one. If time must slip away, and it must, she is the only one I have ever wanted to slip it away with.

Birch Trees

Did you know that birch trees were sacred to the ancient Celts? They appear in Celtic mythology as “trees of new beginnings” – symbolizing rebirth and renewal; not unlike the way modern folk behold the beginning of a new year. 

Down the road from the house I was raised in, there was a wood of white birch. I often walked amongst its trees; too young then to realize I was experiencing something only northern folk were lucky enough to partake in. Walking through a wood of snow-white trees is something you do not easily forget, especially after leaving it behind and beginning anew in a place where not a single white birch can be found.

 

In September 1976, I drove alone, north into the High Peaks region of the Adirondack Mountains, with no particular destination in mind, for I was on that day searching for a peace of mind that eluded me. 

 

A year later, in October 1977, I drove east out of the village of Lake George into Vermont, once again with no particular destination in mind; but this time, the peace of mind that had eluded me earlier now felt as if it had always been there beside me, for my heart no longer knew how to imagine life without it.

 

We followed our noses that day, my fiancé Laura and I, driving into the Green Mountains of Vermont with nothing more than a map and our whole lives before us, passing through occasional bursts of snow-white birch trees that unbeknownst to we two were heralding us… foreshadowing the best of days that were yet to come.

 

“And so I dream of going back to be.” – Robert Frost (Birches)

 

Happy New Year everyone.