Today officially ends the palindrome days of 2019. Nothing set my mind soaring like hearing that the dates from 9/10/19 through 9/19/19 are all palindromes – numbers that are the same when written backward and forward. I love this! As we finish out these days of the palindrome, I have more questions that answers. When will this occur again? How often does it happen? Google helped me learn some of the answers and left some for me to continue to ponder. One thing was clear – the format one uses for dates drives the answer to the question being asked.

For some reason, numbers fascinate, inspire and soothe me. They are interesting and cause me to think beyond whatever fact they are describing. Recently I worked on a big project that required lots of data crunching. As our team crunched away, we asked more and more questions. We were working hard to make sure the numbers were telling the story that they appeared to be telling. It’s easy to find a numerical answer to a problem. It’s more difficult to make sure that the number being put forth is truly describing the situation clearly and accurately.

As palindrome week comes to an end, consider the patterns that are present every day. What do you notice? How are numbers influencing your thinking? What story can they tell?