Let me read your palm

Do you see patterns and symmetry? In almost everything? Yeah, neither do I. However, I often do see them. One struck me the other day.

I was solving a crossword puzzle [link]. Or I should say I had solved that crossword puzzle and was surprised to find I had, in spite of one error while filling in the letters, achieved a new High Score. I am not sure quite how the scoring is done with this puzzle, most others are simply timed, but it is some combination of accuracy and time. In any event, my high score was 4263 for Saturday (my previous best was 4078)¹. I was pleased with myself, as we egotistical types often are when we do something well, and then I noticed the date: 2-11-12. It's a numeric palindrome. 21112. By the way, they add up to 7 which I used to think of as my "lucky number" when I believed in such things.²

Does this mean anything? No, unless you are into numerology, I suppose. It's just numbers lining up. Coincidence and nothing more.

When I was going into the Navy (and shortly after I entered), I took a battery of tests. I had taken these a few years before when I went with a friend to check out the Air Force. The recruiter offered us this battery of tests. I was not especially interested in the Air Force at the time but I liked taking tests. Especially ones where I had no opportunity for preparation.

One of the tests involved discerning patterns in random pictures. Not a pattern in a series of pictures but within each picture. This was, I think, examining the test-taker's ability to read schematics and comprehend electronic circuits. I did well on that test, as I recall, each time I took it.

I also see patterns in behavior (both in myself and others) fairly easily. It makes me wonder if I could have been a good detective. Or if I just read way too much into things.

We all do that, don't we? Read too much into things from time to time, that is. And we all look for patterns too, I think. We just don't call it that. Maybe that's how some so-called psychics work. Perhaps they see these patterns that most of us miss and piece them together followed by a guess as to what they mean. Perhaps they (the ones who aren't outright phonies and scam artists) don't even realize they are doing this.

¹Each puzzle is different and, therefore, cannot be equated.

²What? You don't have a "lucky number"? I'd have really been amazed if, instead of 4263, I had scored 4264!