odd numbers
by Kristen
I have a thing about odd numbers . . . I don’t like them. Fives are tolerable, but the rest of them—I’m not a fan.
Turning even-numbered ages doesn’t bother me, but the odd years irk me. I set the volume on electronic devices to even numbers. I eat candies in pairs. I favor even over odd. It’s inexplicable. And a bit embarrassing.
Maybe it has something to do with symmetry. Odd numbers are unbalanced. They can’t be evenly divided. They’re lopsided. They’re . . . odd.
Or maybe it has to do with fairness and evenness. I long for fair, for even—right up until I realize what I’d have coming to me if life were fair, if everything was even. Fair is not equal and equal is not fair. No matter what the thesaurus says, they are not interchangeable. My head calls for equal but my heart longs for fair. And I’m left holding the odd pieces of imperfection.
I chafe against odd numbers for the same reason I chafe against grace. It isn’t fair. It isn’t equal. It isn’t a quantity to be parceled out in evenly divided amounts. It’s irrational and it’s glorious.
looking through me 
What a great line: “it’s irrational and it’s glorious” !! What a great descriptor of God….
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I’m okay with odd numbers. I have a thing against all prime numbers except 2. I even had a strategy had I ever gone on Deal or no Deal. Eliminate prime numbers first, then the rest of the odd numbers, then the even numbers. I would have chosen case number 22.
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You crack me up, and you totally make me feel better about my odd number aversion 🙂
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And yet, you are the only one of my children who “chose” to be born on an odd number date! (However you do have an even month and year.)
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I know…I still don’t know what I was thinking. Maybe it was my impatience thinking I was missing out being with my brothers and I couldn’t take it another day 🙂
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