A Dozen

Information taken from Wikipedia:

A dozen  is a grouping of twelve. The dozen may be one of the earliest primitive groupings, perhaps because there are approximately a dozen cycles of the moon or months in a cycle of the sun or year. Twelve is convenient because it has more divisors than other small numbers: 12 = 2 × 6 = 3 × 4 = 1 × 12. The use of twelve as a base number, known as the duodecimal system (also as dozenal), probably originated in Mesopotamia. This could come from counting on one's fingers by counting each finger bone with one's thumb. Using this method, one hand can count to twelve, and two hands can count to 144. 

Okay, I'm still trying to figure out that last part.  (With two hands, I get 24.  What am I missing here?  Besides 120 bones?)

I have often considered our obsession with Base 10 to be limiting, especially in regard to the way we refer to the past.  "The Sixties" does not accurately sum up a period of time culturally, musically, politically, or otherwise.  I know.  I came of age in that decade.  I would say that 1961 had absolutely nothing in common with 1969.  I've always liked to quote Miles Dentrell, a character on the TV series thirtysomething:  "The decimalization of time is so arbitrary."

But twelve?  A dozen?  Christianity tells us there were 12 Apostles.  Recovering addicts go through a 12-Step Program.  There are 12 pairs of ribs in the human body.  There are 12 inches to a foot, 12 hours on a clockface, and 12 months in a year.

Many things come in groups of 12:  cupcakes, roses, soda cans, bottled beer, eggs, hot dogs (which always brings up the fact that hot dog buns come in packages of eight, a very clever marketing technique to get you to buy more).  Literature has given us Twelve Angry Men, The Dirty Dozen, and Twelfth Night.

And then there are the Twelve Days of Christmas, which, unbeknownst to commercial radio stations and marketing people, don't begin until Christmas Day and end on January 6, The Epiphany.

But that's not why I am in love with a dozen.  I'm not even sure that I am in love with a dozen.  But my husband died a dozen years ago tonight, so I am searching for something to love.  How can I spin this?  A dozen years have passed, and my love for him is still there?  Yes, that's it.

I am still in love.