August 16 - Day 116 - “You are who you choose to be.” ‘The Iron Man’ by Ted Hughes

I always find coincidences interesting - like Day 116 being on August 16 - completely unplanned. Numbers and connections can be fascinating. Number 16 is not only a square number but has been used in several cultures for weighing (16 ounces in one pound). It’s easy to see how it would be easier to weigh/split wheat or flour for example into sixteen equal amounts through divisions than to split it into ten parts. 16 is Sixteen is also the base of the hexadecimal number system, used often in computer science.

16 is also the atomic number of sulphur, or sulfar as it is more commonly spelt beyond the UK. The element sulphur is a bright yellow, crystallised solid at room temperature and it is essential for life. In literature (and history), sulphur is also called brimstone, meaning ‘burning stone’.

At this point you might be wondering what this has to do with Ted Hughes - who after all wrote ‘The Iron Man’ not the ‘Sulphur Man’. Not wanting to appear like a contestant on only connect, the answer was going to be the number 16. Let this, however, be a lesson to us all about ‘facts’ found on the web. When I first looked up famous people who were born today, it said Ted Hughes, former Poet Laureate, was born in West Yorkshire on August 16 in 1930. On checking further, it turns out to actually be the 17 August! (Which sort of ruins my links and connections).

So on what was rather a dull morning, it seems fitting (at least in preparation for the 17 August tomorrow - quickly trying to justify it!) to end with another quotation by Ted Hughes and reflect on our own degree of feeling and what voltage of life we can tolerate, remembering that he also said, ‘You are who you choose to be’ - an excellent thought to start the week?

‘And that's how we measure out our real respect for people—by the degree of feeling they can register, the voltage of life they can carry and tolerate—and enjoy. End of sermon. As Buddha says: live like a mighty river. And as the old Greeks said: live as though all your ancestors were living again through you.’ Ted Hughes