Milestones

[SportsFan68]

We love to watch those numbers roll over to zeroes. From our odometers to Gus chases, we have a fascination with those unique and somehow magical and powerful markers.

I love other numbers too -- I almost always watch my birthdate come up on the treadmill counting down, unless I'm in the middle of a really exciting part in my book and miss it. If what's in books somehow ends up in the walls of the places in which they're read, my gym is imbued with a big dose of Harry Potter magic. My house too, come to think of it.

A magic wand would be a wonderful thing, but even a brilliant magician like Harry couldn't cure the really big ills that bring sadness into our lives. It would be wonderful indeed if a magic wand could have given Cho Seung-Hui and Robert Hawkins some peace so that they didn't feel the need to end so many lives in such a shocking and appalling way.

Alas, it doesn't work that way. My heart goes out to all those families with a wish that they can find a way to go on, along with the family and everyone else who knew Baby Grace and all the other children born into dreadful situations.

This has somehow turned into a sad commentary on social ills, quite at odds with my own happy and comfortable life as we roll into the heart of the holiday season. It wasn't intended to be that way, but it's like John Fowles wrote about The French Lieutenant's Women -- if you think that your characters are completely under your control and that your novel will turn out exactly as you expected, you're deluding yourself. It's what happened to be rolling around when 46,000 rolled over, so it's what rolled out of the keyboard.

There is one thing I want to make sure I say this time. Posters sometimes behave around here in a way that I find somewhat less than satisfactory (What was the name of that idiot who insulted every woman who'd ever posted here? . . . Never mind, I don't really want to know.), but the community rolls on in an amazing and heartening way. I often read posts by Skoop, Pea, SC, Tgirl, Hermillion, PSM, Ducks, Phee, JBH, Aussie, OI, and so on, and feel amazed and grateful that they stuck around after their turn in the Hot Seat and are still helping those of us who haven't made it. Thanks much to all of you who have ever taught me anything, and hopefully one of these years, maybe even next year, I'll make it count.

[silvercamaro]

Congratulations on your zeroes, sprots.

[peacock2121]

You've already made it count. He keep making it count every day.

You will end up in the hot seat and have your shot.

You will have a place to stay on the road there.

I am so glad to have found you.