What is seventy-five?
I went on a search to find out.
Hello friend,
My curiosity often runs rampant like an earworm that won’t go away.
A question rolled persistently between my dendrites. Does the number 75 hold any special significance or hidden meanings?
I’m not a math nerd, and you may not be either, so hang with me for a couple of sentences. Wikipedia spewed out a dizzying list of mathematical nonsense that made my brain glaze over. Turns out 75 is, a natural number—the one that comes after 74 and before 76. Wait, things get worse.
I never knew 75 is a self number—no integer added up to its digits adds up to 75. And there’s more.
The third dimension contains 75 uniform polyhedra!
I left the gobblygook behind, continued my search, and found a few interesting and light factoids to satisfy my yearning.
The seventy-fifth day of the year falls on March 16 or March 15 in a leap year.
The standard game of BINGO has 75 balls.
The sapphire is the gemstone for a seventy-fifth anniversary but for a birthday? Diamond!
When I typed, “What does 75 look like?” A barrage of photos of men and women with gray hair, wrinkles, and a smile stared back at me. I saw photographs of people playing tennis, biking, hiking, swimming, writing, painting, cooking gourmet dishes, reading, whizzing down a slide—living life. I liked what I saw.
I remember lying in my bed the night before a birthday when I was eight, or maybe the ripe old age of 13. I tried to imagine myself at 30, 50, or 70 like my grandmother. Those ages seemed a lifetime away. Yet, I passed each of those milestones.
What did I learn about 75?
Seventy-five is fascinating. The stars and numbers may be infinite, but we only have one life. And it looks like joy, optimism, enthusiasm, hope, possibility, and me.
Thanks to each of you who make my life a “wonderful world.”
Living asks for a balance of holding on and letting go.
What makes a good life? A study spanning over 75 years discovered important lessons.
Songs for joy and hope: Living in the Moment, Here Comes the Sun, What a Wonderful World.
“Do not wait for life. Do not long for it. Be aware, always and at every moment, that the miracle is in the here and now.”
—Marcel Proust
“There isn't time, so brief is life, for bickerings, apologies, heartburnings, callings to account. There is only time for loving, and but an instant, so to speak, for that.”
—Samuel L. Clemens (Mark Twain), Letter to Clara Spaulding; 20 August 1886.
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With gratitude,
Kathryn
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The doctor told me I will only live to 75. I will prove her wrong
Wow! That's a solid injection of positive and life-confirming inspiration! Thanks - you made me smile :) So much value in just a small number, and so many thoughts to be extracted from it - so many directions of meaning - and yet, so much integrity in gathering all of this in one tiny spot in the universe. The spot called 75.