Seriously, we tend to create groups of people, things, and ideas, and the number of elements in the group plays a rule in how we react to the group. The Three Musketeers is the tale that d’Artagnan tells about meeting Athos, Porthos, and Aramis, “the three inseparables.” The Musketeers of legend, then, start as three plus one until they become four, organically.
Snow White and the Seven Dwarves are similarly ambiguous: seven plus one, which “is a kind of eight, without being exactly eight.” If we thought of them as eight, rather than seven plus one, their tale would be perverted, immoral, and dirty. Against the law.
Over the years and decades, these specific groupings have made a deep impression in our brains. It’s quite likely that our brains “wanted to be impressed.” Numerical organization makes brains happy. And our brains shall henceforth rebel against seven musketeers and four dwarves. It’s wrong, wrong, wrong.
The Eleven Commandments? No, no, no.
The Thirteen Apostles? No, no, no!
The Hundred and Four Dalmatians? Nooooooooooo!
The Five Cardinal Points? You’re making me dizzy.
But this is only an introduction to the real subject of this blog post. I’ve been very busy with projects, deadlines, tasks, obligations, happenings, duties, pleasures, also tasks and deadlines, plus a whole bunch of projects. Paperwork, admin, correspondence. Shopping, cooking, cleaning. Friendly duties urgently performed for loving friends. Have I mentioned tasks and deadlines?
Thankfully, I have Seven Strategies for S-Dissipating Stress. (I couldn’t find a synonym for “dissipating” starting with “s,” except maybe “squandering.”) Be warned: my strategies work!