I went to sleep last night thinking of the wonder of writing, whether it is writing by hand, or typing. I think, move my fingers, and you know what I think is going on with me. Amazing!
Then, this morning I read the following in Writer's Almanac. I've never thought of numbers as friends, but perhaps it is time to settle down and get cozy with a 1 or a two.
from Writer's Almanac:
Today is the 30th birthday of the man who holds the European record for reciting pi from memory, Daniel Paul Tammet. It took him five hours and nine minutes to recite 22,514 digits of pi (the number that begins 3.14).
He was born in London in 1979, and he grew up autistic, epileptic, and with synesthesia, a rare condition in which a person has unique sensory experiences. He wrote a memoir called Born on a Blue Day: Inside the Extraordinary Mind of an Autistic Savant (2007). It begins, "I was born on January 31, 1979 — a Wednesday. I know it was a Wednesday, because the date is blue in my mind and Wednesdays are always blue, like the number 9 or the sound of loud voices arguing."
Tammet describes synesthesia as "a visual, emotional experience of numbers, a neurological mixing of the senses, which most commonly results in the ability to see alphabetical letters and/or numbers in color." Vladimir Nabokov was also a synesthete, and documented his perspectives and experiences in the memoir Speak, Memory.
Daniel Tammet said, "Numbers are my friends, and they are always around me. Each one is unique and has its own personality."