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| Sunday, 28 August 2005 |
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The very
even 'Odd' number
Kaleidoscope by Rohan Jayawardana Part I There was once upon a time a book of the Sherlock Holmes detective series titled 'The Sign of Four'. In the same era of its author Sir Arthur Conan Doyle there was another genius-writer Edgar Wallace who wrote a fine novel 'The Four Just Men'. It is noted that this tendency toward four ceased at this point and the entire world then became focused on the horrible brutalities of World War Two upon peace and sanity. Then, quite curiously the post-war expressions transferred from literature into song and there arrived a delightful era of Quartet singing (foursomes). The process was facilitated by the fact that the sounds of music can be generally divided into convenient divisions of Four and a whole lot of composers had written vocal music in Four parts! (there are the extremes of high and low, while at the centre there is a further division. For instance, Tenor/Sopranos are high while the Bass/Contraltos are low; at the centre division there are the mezzo-sopranos and the baritones. These are voice categories.) Among the greatest of the singing quartets was the Golden Gate Quartet on the international scene. In Sri Lanka which was then "Ceylon" there were the wonderful Italiares comprising Bede de Zilwa, Reggie Perumal, Basil Joseph and Raja Christopher. (Bede, Basil and Raja are still vigorous singers while the sedate Reggie has passed away). Although it sounds eccentric it is certainly not weird to realize that Four is a "balanced numeral," unlike with three or five, because it constitutes two Pairs! There is no doubt either that a "pair" effects more balance than just one (out of which there arises the wisdom that two heads are better than one). The subject of Numbers (numerals) is named Numerology. To some persons this is a difficult topic even from earliest days at school, while to a minority it is instinctive to be "mathematically precise" in their brain's output (but often at odds even with the simple routines of daily existence!) Thereby we have precise and imprecise persons who are not necessarily of mathematical mind; while the rest tend to be absent-minded except when engaged upon all sorts of calculations and "the sciences." The latter actually have a special grasp of the "spatial" aspects of life, the invisible equations that effect harmonised outcomes. Within this meta-physics there are Odd numbers and balanced Even ones. Therefore when the human race began to think in the abstract, they came up with Numbers and the configurations of Numerology. Except for Biology and its protoplasm, most other things revolve around the morass of numerals in earthly existence. However, at Nine there came about a natural problem: it was never possible to go beyond this point in single digits. We next have ten, which is a return to One and Zero! It is at this point that the importance of Zero is noted, because the first position at the start of every single count is Zero; where there is "nothing". (At the beginning there is nothing). This leaves us with an amusement. If the first stage or the No. 1 position is zero, then the No. 2 position is One, and No. 3 is Two. Finally, we have the No. 10 position, which is Nine! (because No. 1 was at Zero).Do we go off our "rocker", or remain "sane" (What is it to "be mad", now?). The nub of the issue seems to be Five. This is evident in the fact that a pair of Fives gives the nicely balanced No. 10 which is the numeral Nine. This may be indicative of "a harmony" at the ultimate 9. To make matters definitive we have elsewhere two pairs of Five fingers and toes. Finally, we do have the indispensable Five senses - sight, hearing, smell, taste and touch. It appears to be a natural factor, this matter of the ubiquitous Five (yet it cannot be ignored that the No. 5 position is Four! So, is it subconscious?) It is natural to assume in these circumstances that the matter needs another look at some other time; this nice looking "Odd" number, Five! |
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