#31 A WOMAN'S BRIEFS -- TWELVE
There are at least these three constants that shape who I am: a love of beauty, a resident sadness, and selective curiosity.
Today, early this morning, looking at a setting full moon in a dark sky, curiosity grabbed my attention. “What is it about the number Twelve?”
I’m a Seattle Seahawks fan (of sorts), so I fit in what is called “The 12.” Eleven players on the field, and then the “Twelfth Man,” spectators in the stadium, and those of us fixed before TV screens across the land.
The word “Twelve” comes to us from twelf, which, just trust me, I don’t wish to attribute quotes here, comes from Middle English, from Proto-Germanic twalif, which takes the word for “twa” (two) and connects it to the idea of “lif” (left over), meaning “two left over having already counting to ten,” and apparently derived from a word meaning “left over” in the proto-Indo-European “leyp” (leave, remain). Let’s not get started on Frisian, West Frisian, Dutch, or German Low, Danish, Swedish, Norwegian, and God help us if we approach Icelandictólf.
The point is, if you’ve managed to create numbers to ten; say you’ve lined up ten navel oranges in a row only to see that some remain – what are you to do? You start over. “Ah, here are ten. But wait! Some are “left over.” Two, in fact. So, we start counting again, 1,2 “left over” after our ten – twalif.
Twelvefold, twelvepenny, Twelftheve, Twelfthcake, Twelfthtide, Israel’s twelve tribes, Jesus called twelve apostles, twelve dwarfs got cut from the original 1937 movie “Snow White” because, well, their names were not so nice; twelve months in a year, twelve hours on a clock, Shakespeare’s twelfth sonnet begins, “When do I count the clock that tells the time.” You’d better bet that clock had twelve numbers on its face; twelve inches in a foot, twelve anythings in a dozen, twelve major Greek gods of Olympus, in astrology twelve stations of the moon, twelve of the sun, the ancient idea of twelve main northern stars, twelve main southern stars, then there’s Carbon-12, twelve function keys on most computers, and twelve strikes required for a perfect game in Ten-Pen Bowling.
The word ‘Imam’ is mentioned twelve times in the Quran. The Prophet Mohammad foretold of twelve princes that would come after him. What does it mean that twelve is great for division but not completion? Does “12” qualify as a cardinal or ordinal number, or sometimes either? I don’t get math.
There’s significance in any team’s jersey number – the number Twelve was worn by quarterbacks Joe Namath, Terry Bradshaw, Roger Staubach. Both Tom Brady and Aaron Rodgers wore/wear it. Who else would dare? In regular season football games, halftime lasts twelve minutes. But enough about footballl, and a number donned by men who find battering an attractive experience. If you are into Chinese numerology, twelve represents harmony in the yin/yang. Twelve, the age for Bat Mitzvah, twelve days of Christmas. In Spain, twelve grapes eaten as the clock strikes twelve on New Year’s Eve brings good luck; twelve people have walked on the moon. Typically, twelve people are seated on a jury. Is it true there are twelve pairs of cranial nerves operating the endocrine system in the human body, and twelve sets of ribs?
Twelve is often cited as a number of completion, so with these next twelve words, I’m done: It Can Be Fun to Follow a Thought to Its Delightful Distraction.
