Numbers can be dry can't they. That's what I though when I first encountered them in their abstract forms at the age of four (at least in the classroom), but privately I've always rather enjoyed them, as entities in their own right.
I have an ordinal linguistic form of synaesthesia (as well as a few other synaesthesias) which means my numbers have colours, genders, personalities and even occupations. Two is female and co-operative, three is male, bubbly and extravert, four is serious and conservative, five is androgynous, sparky and hyperactive, six is a more introverted type of two, seven is a wizard, eight is a workaholic businessman (and the father of number four) and nine is a male absent minded scientist (a bit like Einstein).
And yes, I worked briefly as a primary school teacher - please don't lock me up...I never tried to teach this to the children...honest.
Let's analyse my sensory perceptions to see if there is some method in this madness. I think I've found a pattern:
- Odd numbers are all eccentric and don't fit in (that figures - odd numbers can't be divided evenly into groups of two - they're awkward buggers).
- Even numbers are conformist and organised (that makes sense too - they're the opposite of odd numbers, above).
- Smaller numbers are more extravert than larger numbers (I think this has something to with larger numbers being more complex).
- Some numbers are mother and child, father and son (that figures too - four and eight are related as eight is divisible by four).
OK - that's settled - I'm not mad. Just a bit unusual.
