One
more year has almost passed… One more year is about to set in…
Nothing but the usual procedure… Following two previous extraordinary celebrations of
the New Millennium (there were so many arguments about the actual date of its beginning
that most people never made it out and had to celebrate it twice successively) this
upcoming year seems to offer us hope of some rest by being just an ordinary one. But…
As soon as I typed in the number 2002, I was seized with a sudden feeling – there was
something unusual, surprisingly exceptional just in the order of the figures. Can you see
it? Just look at it or write it down. Do you remember these: “А роза упала
на лапу Азора”, “Madam, I’m Adam”? This phenomenon is familiar to every
linguist – yes, it’s a palindrome.
What does it mean to have a palindromic number as a New Year? Nobody knows, I think. I am
hoping it does mean something – since we are approaching the New Year’s Eve, when
mysterious enigmatic things could happen, let’s consider it to be important.
The palindrome is an old symbol of the idea of perpetuum mobile, the secret force
that keeps itself going. The incantation of the palindromic symmetry fascinates and
astonishes. It is not unlikely that the harmony of it will help us to achieve harmony in
our souls and in our world.
The very idea of transformation and metamorphosis represented in the palindrome nourish
our hopes of change for the better.
You can continue this unpremeditated flight of fancy independently.
Just one more amazing revelation – for the first time in the history of mankind people
of several generations have a chance to experience two four-digit years-palindromes in
their lifetime (1991, 2002). This has never happened before and it will occur again only a
millennium later. Hopefully it will!