Numbers

8 , 10 , 50 , 100 , 200

Love them or hate them, numbers are the the language of our universe. Some say they are indeed the underlying fabric of our reality.
So, let’s dive in some of them with a special meaning for me…
This won’t be a small read; consider yourselves warned!

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8 are the years since this blog was created…
It started as Spira Soul Creations and then evolved into the apparent now, yet elusive for some time,
inSPIRAtion.
It is no hyperbole to state that this WordPress blog has been and still is a home & a lighthouse for me.
A home, for all the obvious reasons of nesting my artistic existence. I feel so homey in it; so that I get as frustrated when they introduce a new editor in replacement of the comfy classic one, as I would be if someone removed my favorite armchair!
A lighthouse, for illuminating the uncharted waters of my journey as Spira.
Allowing other travelers to find that small dot in the ocean called inSPIRAtion.
Allowing me to find other lighthouses, signaling new harbors, forging friendships,
with whom ” we break our bread daily”.

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10 are the years since my first creation .
I remember saying to my Sun & Stars that I was thinking to sculpture something on that big candle, but I was afraid I’d ruin it; cause I’d never done anything like this before- mind you it was from our wedding.
And she replied ” Go for it ! ”
There is no amount of words able to encompass what her continuing support means.
In difficult times when our reality abruptly changed, she kept the fire burning.
It has been & continues to be the life line of Spira.
One cannot exist without the other. Period.

Fancy a behind the scenes look of the Spira inner workings?

Every time before I start a creation, there is this fear of not being worthy of what is about to happen.
Everything comes from a place within, as I was never taught any technique. And as such, the time before I start creating is awesome, in the biblical sense.

Until the moment my psyche echoes the voice of my Αμαδρυάς and then I’m lost in creation.

The only thing I consciously brought from my past is the work ethic ; I am stepping into my underground workplace with the same attention and focus as I have exercised for 25 years rehabilitating my patients.
Beyond that, everything was from that first day in 2011 and is today January 30th 2021
a magical, humbling, awe inspiring leap of faith.

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50 are the years of my existence on this planet.
And as my brother just wrote me in a moving way,: “You are officially now a vintage limited edition-
Happy birthday you tremendous old fart!! ” lol

The ship “Aspis (shield) 06” is a Fletcher type destroyer on which my father served for many years.
(similar DD ship is featured at the movie Greyhound with Tom Hanks )
This date also marks another occasion 25 years ago:
January 30th 1996, Imia – WE DO NOT FORGET.

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100 plus are the blog followers.
Although I am not ignorant to the fact that some of them were only a tactic to attract their own follows,
I appreciate each and every one who has invested time and attention in experiencing what inSPIRAtion has to offer!
I for one will remain firm in my decision to follow/like etc. only when I have the interest and /or time to interact with said content.
This may be a good time to talk about dopamine induced actions. It is a subject that deserves a long , thorough discussion; I will only try to portrait some structural points. But first me being me, I have a request from you. Since you have reached thus far; I would like your help with an experiment.
I will ask you not to press the like button here and/or facebook but instead place a comment starting with one of the five numbers at the beginning of this post; you may add to that anything else you desire.
Social media are a dominant actor in so many levels of individual/collective being.
Though many of us, if not all, perceive them as tools of interactive communication, in essence they are far from such.
To put it in a nutshell, tools do not compete for our attention – the broad spectrum of social media does.
A very insightful phrase I encountered is : ” If you are not paying for a product, chances are you are the product.”

Subtle, gradual changes that affect our behavior are taking place resulting in a cultural shift.
Though significant in scope, they remain unchallenged due to their insidious character. Take for example how hooked we are to all kinds of Like buttons. Even those who understand the mechanics of it, find themselves under the spell. Because the principles upon which they were developed are rooted in human psychology and physiology (hence the dopamine mention earlier).
In 1996/97 when Grandmaster Garry Kasparov played those historic chess games against Deep Blue supercomputer, he was aware of the nature/ abilities of his opponent.
Today similarly, we are not aware of the artificial intelligence that governs the social media algorithms. An intelligence that has grown several trillion times during the last fifty years ( how is that for a number? ).
Fortunately, there is a plethora of documentation for both sides of the argument; an honest and fair discussion is needed more than ever.

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200 are the years since the Hellenic Revolution in 1821.
Speaking of revolution…I can’t escape the image of that piano scarf young lady, at the attack on the US Capitol on January 6th, being frustrated that she was Mace’d by the police during what she called a revolution…if only there was an ideogram for a huge face palm!

Eugene Goodman is a Capitol police officer who honored his oath and stood his ground against a lynching mob.
Another officer at the Senate, in a dire contrast, when he was asked by a undercover New Yorker journalist “Why aren’t you stopping us?” he replied by counting the protesters in the room (five) against himself (one)…Numbers…
A few days later, his counting up to five was for everyone to see upon the release of the video.

As for Eugene, he was standing alone…again…

… this time accompanying VP Kamala Harris and just behind the soon to be President J. R. Biden Jr during the Presidential Inauguration ceremony.

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Revolution – (R) = Evolution

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200 are also my creations so far.
To be accurate my new collaboration with Ford P. Waight titled “The Remains of She” is the 199th ; the one I am working for some time will be the 200th.
I am still in disbelief as I am trying to fathom this number and its significance…
Indeed it has been a magical spiral of evolution, one I never imagined I would experience.
Yet here we are…
A lot of numbers align, a lot of instances too.
Coincidence , as the saying goes, is the way of God to remain anonymous.
Let’s look at a couple of them.
First, the theme of the 200th creation is Time…and certainly it took it’s time! I started sculpting a few years ago and then paused cause I had an “artist’s block”.
Fast forward some months ago and I am back working with it. I also built a deck for my workstation, where I carved the names of all my creations; let’s hope that it will be a work in progress!!
Another coincidence (?) – at my marriage we had two big candles. One became my first creation.
Guess where the second is…

Yes, it’s becoming the 200th…

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Numbers and their ” unreasonable efficiency “…were they invented or discovered?
An ongoing debate from Pythagoras to Quantum mathematics, from Hilbert to Wigner & Fibonacci…
A mere intellectual construct or the inherent language of the universe?

I for one had enough numbers for one post!

So, I will leave you to enjoy a glass or two (or three) of a special gift
from my Sun & Stars :
a Lagavulin 8 year 200th anniversary (1816-2016)-
damn numbers, even the single malt ones align!

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And to have a fitting end, let’s apply a paradoxical riddle in the way of Zen Buddhism meditation, called koan :
If there are 200 Spira creations
and there is no one to count them,
does the number 200 exist ?

Slàinte !

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