Dear Family and Friends,
What if?
What if you fail? What if you make the wrong decision? What if the worse case scenario actually happens? What if you set into motion a series of events that result in the end of life as you know it?
It could happen. On December 31st, 1999, the world waited in anticipation of the possibility that life as we knew it would come to a tumultuous end.
A patient and I were discussing our hypothetical response in a doomsday scenario and what we had feared at the turn of the century. The patient mentioned that his aunt stored weeks of survival supplies on her rural farm anticipating that the world would break into chaos due to the Y2K scare. In 1999 her fear was warranted. ( I’m sure many of you prepared something- maybe not to the same extent- anticipating the world banks would crash, computers would fail, and pandemonium would surely follow.) Then January 01, 2000 came and went. And so did the next day. And the next. And the next.
As we approach the 20th anniversary of the Y2K mania that never materialized, this letter in honor of January 2, 2000– the day we were all assured that we were spared of the greatest stock market crash, rise of global lawlessness, and impending zombie apocalypse. While this letter has nothing to do with Y2K in particular, I’ve been pondering the idea of how lizard tails and 27 both represent a new normal after real and barely missed chaos occurs in life.
I’ve always been fascinated with lizards. Actually, that’s a lie. I don’t mess with lizards. I couldn’t figure out a 2nd thing to connect to the number 27 as I pondered the bigger thoughts as to who we are after we have been changed by circumstances. I was in my happy place, Eastern Market in Washington D.C., when I began talking with a local artist, Rayhart, about the recent musing floating through my brain. Rayhart shared with me a story from his childhood in South Florida. It is a common past time activity for kids to step on lizards and watch their tails come off and continue wiggling without a body.
Lizards can purposefully detach their tail in high stress environments when they are being attacked. This survival mechanism– having a completely detached wiggling tail– distracts their predator and allows for the lizard scurry away to safety. In a few weeks to months, the lizard will regenerate a brand new tail made of cartilage instead of bone.
We see this in humans, too. No, we don’t disconnected a limb to escape predators, but we do sometimes emotionally dissociate from traumatic experiences as a means of protecting ourselves. Physically, we have only two organs that will self-regenerate without the aid of science or medicine after a traumatic event, both of which work on a 27 day cycle.
The liver is a powerful organ that is responsible for numerous critical functions. It filters blood; detoxifies minerals; metabolizes drugs, fats, proteins, and carbohydrates; initiates enzyme activation; stores glycogen, vitamins, and minerals; and synthesises plasma proteins. The liver is vulnerable to the effects of alcohol and the hepatitis viruses. The liver has the capability of healing itself after being poisoned or resolving a viral infection in 27 days.
Similarly, the skin is the external organ that has the power to heal itself. All of us have been cut and watched a scar regenerated a protective barrier. Even without an injury we are constantly becoming a new body. Every 27 days the body regenerates a new layer of skin to mark healthy growth and development. I did the math; by the time I’ve sent this letter to you, my skin has turned over 421 times during my lifetime.
And because I’m feeling the number 27 right now, there are 27 bones in your hand, FYI.
Lastly, depending on what you subscribe to, there is one last cycle of 27 that deserves an honorable mention– the menstrual cycle. Just kidding.
In astrology, completely unrelated to herpetology or anatomy, Saturn orbits around the sun roughly every 27-30 years. This orbital journey, a Saturn Return, is when Saturn returns to the same place in the galaxy in which it was situated when a person was born. Why does this matter? A Saturn Return is akin to an individual’s personal Y2K. Some consider it a rite of passage as it is often a manifestation of a period of uncertainty and disorder in one’s life.
I appreciate the significance of the number 27 as a special Biblical number. The number 27 derives its meaning from being the cube of 3 (3 x 3 x 3). Many Biblical scholars recognize the number 3 as divine completeness, wholeness, and perfection– the representation of the Light of God. While some may consider a Saturn Return as chaos and disorganization, I believe it is just a rocky road towards wholeness and completion.
Once someone gets through their Saturn Return, they are stronger, wiser, richer, skinnier, better off because of it. The end of a Saturn Return is a cosmic punctuation mark in a person’s life story. For some people, it is a period ending a chapter. For others it is a comma, an exclamation mark, or an ellipsis.
And this punctates the end of this month’s letter celebrating the day after you thought the world was going to end– you didn’t get the job, you got dumped, you didn’t win the lottery– and you realized that the world and Saturn just kept spinning.
Sincerely,
Brianna
Maybe, if you ask, I’ll share with you a voicemail I saved from my mom. I failed a class a few years ago and thought I would never get into nursing school and my life would be perpetually doomed. Sometimes I re-listen to that voicemail as a reminder that I have survived my own Y2K.
My class number in the 2nd grade was 27. Now you know.
~If you can leave everything behind you’ll return with much more than when you came~
Fear Was Last Season 