Sometime when you have nothing to do or are doing nothing (That might be now, I fear), you can research the many symbolic associations with the number nine. Here are some: The Great Ennead or Great Nine in Egyptian mythology and the nine muses in Greek mythology; the numerous mentions of and symbolic meanings for nine in Judaism and Christianity (the number occurs 50 times in the Bible); Dante’s Inferno with nine circles (levels), and being in euphoria as being on Cloud Nine. And of course, there are Vesna’s—excuse me, a cat’s—nine lives.
Vesna Vulovic apparently used up all nine of her lives, demonstrating that even the luckiest or most blessed of us will eventually fall. Vesna was the stewardess who on January 26, 1972, survived a drop from about 30,000 feet when her plane exploded in midair. She fell with part of the plane, landed in deep snow, suffered some injuries, eventually went into a coma, and then recovered to resume working at a desk job for the airline, but flying only as a passenger. Her plunge is in the Guinness Book of World Records. Thirty thousand feet is 200 times the height assumed to be the limit for the human body to survive a fall. After her recovery from her injuries, even temporary paralysis, Vesna said she was a cat: She had nine lives. She apparently used all nine of them. Vesna died in December, 2016.
The problem finite beings have with having nine lives is that nine is finite number. But in a way, it wouldn’t matter if we had ten or ten thousand lives to spend because all are finite numbers. You can be fortunate like Vesna and survive even an extreme event like a fall from 30,000 feet, but eventually….
Let me get personal. My father lived to age 97. In that year, he said, “I never thought I would live to 97.” He survived the battle on Okinawa as a Marine. In all those years I had with him, he didn’t talk much about the war—I believe he might have had some form of PTSD that he covered up until it appeared to surface occasionally in his late eighties—but I remember his recalling one incident. He operated a radar shack on the edge of a cliff on the island during the battle. The radar was connected to antiaircraft guns. Japanese pilots skimming the water to avoid detection, rose to get over the cliff, where the radar picked them up. The guns swiveled to fire, hitting planes just over the roof of his shack. For one of those ever-so-brief-but-seemingly-eternal moments as ack-ack flack burst over them, he and another Marine thought they would be blasted by their own antiaircraft guns or have a plane crash into the shack. They survived. My dad survived World War II, and he lived another 68 years for which I am thankful. Oorah.
Vesna Vulovic survived her fall and political turmoil in her country to reach age 66. She was an activist for democracy and against the Socialist Party of Serbia. I can only suppose that having survived that great fall, she became fearless in her political life. The regime never threw her in jail, probably because of her fame. But she did die, living two years fewer than the period my dad survived after WW II.
There’s a limit for each of us. And that is the fundamental reason that I call this website thisisnotyourpracticelife.com. Even the longest of human lives is short. So, if you feel you have nothing to do some day, think again. You have everything to do and little time to do it.
Vesna Vulovic apparently used up all nine of her lives, demonstrating that even the luckiest or most blessed of us will eventually fall. Vesna was the stewardess who on January 26, 1972, survived a drop from about 30,000 feet when her plane exploded in midair. She fell with part of the plane, landed in deep snow, suffered some injuries, eventually went into a coma, and then recovered to resume working at a desk job for the airline, but flying only as a passenger. Her plunge is in the Guinness Book of World Records. Thirty thousand feet is 200 times the height assumed to be the limit for the human body to survive a fall. After her recovery from her injuries, even temporary paralysis, Vesna said she was a cat: She had nine lives. She apparently used all nine of them. Vesna died in December, 2016.
The problem finite beings have with having nine lives is that nine is finite number. But in a way, it wouldn’t matter if we had ten or ten thousand lives to spend because all are finite numbers. You can be fortunate like Vesna and survive even an extreme event like a fall from 30,000 feet, but eventually….
Let me get personal. My father lived to age 97. In that year, he said, “I never thought I would live to 97.” He survived the battle on Okinawa as a Marine. In all those years I had with him, he didn’t talk much about the war—I believe he might have had some form of PTSD that he covered up until it appeared to surface occasionally in his late eighties—but I remember his recalling one incident. He operated a radar shack on the edge of a cliff on the island during the battle. The radar was connected to antiaircraft guns. Japanese pilots skimming the water to avoid detection, rose to get over the cliff, where the radar picked them up. The guns swiveled to fire, hitting planes just over the roof of his shack. For one of those ever-so-brief-but-seemingly-eternal moments as ack-ack flack burst over them, he and another Marine thought they would be blasted by their own antiaircraft guns or have a plane crash into the shack. They survived. My dad survived World War II, and he lived another 68 years for which I am thankful. Oorah.
Vesna Vulovic survived her fall and political turmoil in her country to reach age 66. She was an activist for democracy and against the Socialist Party of Serbia. I can only suppose that having survived that great fall, she became fearless in her political life. The regime never threw her in jail, probably because of her fame. But she did die, living two years fewer than the period my dad survived after WW II.
There’s a limit for each of us. And that is the fundamental reason that I call this website thisisnotyourpracticelife.com. Even the longest of human lives is short. So, if you feel you have nothing to do some day, think again. You have everything to do and little time to do it.
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