Well, here we are nearing the end of 2023…. I guess, to be honest, 2023 has just worn me down. It’s been a trying year — personally as well as on the world scene. Ongoing wars continued and new ones erupted. Meetings between heads of state seemed to generate only headlines — and little, or no, progress. All years are good years, but it sure seems like this year good news has been in short supply.
I’m not into numerology, but I wonder if 2023 means anything….. I know that if you’d like to write the year 2023 in roman numerals, it’d be MMXXIII. And although I haven’t thought about it for a while, I used to be a little proficient in binary numbers — if you’re interested, in binary it’s 11111100111. And while we’re at it, 2023 is a Harshad number. A Harshad number is a number that can be evenly divided by the sum of its digits. If you add the four digits of 2023 it equals 7. Now if 2023 can be divided evenly by 7, it’s a Harshad number. Turns out it can 2023 ÷ 7 = 289.
Of course according to the Chinese calendar, 2023 was the Year of the Rabbit. And because the Chinese calendar works from the lunar cycle, Chinese New Year for 2023 didn’t start on January 1 — it started on January 22nd and won’t end until February 9, 2024.
So this year was full of ups and downs — seems like there were more downs than ups this time, but now that we’re closing out the year, we should try to put the past years mistakes and regrets in the past.
Let’s welcome 2024 with optimism, goodwill and high hopes for the year and try to not let the current gloom dampen our enthusiasm for the future.
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