We were watching a TV show about a time when 98% of the population of the country had been wiped out by a virus and the survivors were all gathering together. One man, who was apparently very much into government processes, asked three men for their Social Security numbers. They just looked at each other and laughed because of how preposterous it was under those circumstances. Kique asked me, “What’s a Social Security number?” I told him everybody has to have a number. It’s the way the government keeps track of us. I said, “You have one.” He said, “I’m a number?” He didn’t say, “I have a number,” but “I am a number.”
Kique is barely 11 years old but for some reason has become fascinated with World War II in the last year. I think it started with Raiders of the Lost Ark and references to Hitler. It spread from there to wanting to know all about the war and the countries involved. The first time he ever heard of someone being a number was in the Holocaust when, as he said, “They put numbers on their arms.” The only other time he heard of someone being a number was in the Sarah Connor Chronicles where the freedom fighters, who had been prisoners of the machines, had barcodes tattooed on their arms.
With that frame of reference, imagine how he felt to learn that he too is a number. Numbers were given to innocent people who were taken prisoner and dehumanized. He sounded a bit shocked to learn that something that was portrayed as something so terrible has just been accepted by all of us as the way things are.
I know when I went to college I memorized my number easily because I had to use it all the time for absolutely everything. I was a number and didn’t even realize it. It just made sense that they had to have some way to identify records and keep track of everything. It seemed normal, even natural. I’ve used that number throughout my life. I’ve tried to guard it so that the wrong people don’t get their hands on it, because if they do, they could steal my identity. They could become me. I am a number!
When I was a missionary and had to report how many people I had taught, taken to church, how many of them we were still teaching and how many had been baptized, I felt really uncomfortable. I didn’t like reducing it all to numbers. We were often reminded that the numbers were just to track progress but that the important thing was the individual. They each have a name. Each is a son or daughter of our Heavenly Father. And yet the statistics continued to dog me.
Are numbers really evil? Well, I’m not a big fan of math. I took a class that my professor called How to Lie With Statistics. I think that’s the name of a book as well. I don’t like the numbers that tell how much I weigh. The ones that reveal my age are not always pleasing. I hate numbers when April rolls around and I have to figure out my income tax. I want to make a lot of money to live off of, but then when it’s time to make sure I paid enough taxes, I want the number to be lower. Numbers never satisfy me. The worst event in our nation’s history has been reduced to a number. I hear 9/11 or think it and immediately I feel the fear and shock that I felt on the day of the attacks.
Numbers are used in the scriptures but they’re a bit confusing. We’re supposed to forgive 7 times 7 but do we really count how many times we forgive someone and when we reach 49, that’s it? Of course not. It means we’re supposed to forgive as many times as is required. There are three members of the Godhead: the Father, Son and Holy Ghost and yet there is only one God. How are three one? It can be very confusing. If you’ve ever read the definition of the Trinity that came out of the Council of Nicaea, you have seen the ultimate example of confusion. Every Christian knows Jesus was resurrected after three days. That’s what He said. “Jesus answered and said unto them, Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up.” (John 2:19) Yet he died late on Friday and took up His body again early Sunday morning. In our way of reckoning, that’s more like a day and a half.
And if you still doubt that numbers are evil, especially when applied to humans, let’s just review what John said in Revelations 13.
16 And he causeth all, both small and great, rich and poor, free and bond, to receive a mark in their right hand, or in their foreheads:
17 And that no man might buy or sell, save he that had the mark, or the name of the beast, or the number of his name. 18 Here is wisdom. Let him that hath understanding count the number of the beast: for it is the number of a man; and his number is Six hundred threescore and six. (or 666)
The number 6 refers to labor in the Old Testament. Six days you labor, and the seventh, you rest. Six years you work the land, and the seventh the land rests. A servant serves six years, and the seventh he goes free. 666, work, work, work. Hum.
A loss of innocence: numbers are confusing and maybe even evil. And each one of us must realize at some point: I am a number.
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