why is there a 7 in every post?

If you’ve stumbled unknowingly across this website, you are probably confused by the recurrence of the number 7. Let me clarify:

When I first got the idea to create my own website, I wanted to find a structure that allowed me plenty of scope to write about any number of subjects, and the flexibility to define individual structures that suited the theme or subject matter I choose to write about.

So, for example, one of the posts I might make could be a very simple list. This could be a list of the “7 books you have to read before you turn 20″. Or, another structure could be “the 7 cardinal sins”, or even “7 ways to make money in your sleep (still working on that one…).

7 is a popular number, but why did I choose this number rather than 3 or 9 or 251? The power of 7 is that if you are writing a list, 7 is a healthy number of items to work with (“3 reasons to visit Columbia” is going to be too small a number to be interesting, and 9 might just be too long for anyone reading such a list online (not to mention, too long to remember all of them).

So, 7 it is. It’s got history, it’s got style, it’s found in maths, in religion, in numerology (although most numbers achieve some significance in that study), and it turns up in the Magnificent 7, the 7 Samurai, and of course, Snow White and the 7 Dwarves. What’s more, according to ancient mariners, and the poetic by nature, there are 7 seas. The earth was, for some, created in 7 days, and the Christian church decrees there are 7 deadly sins (as Brad Pitt can testify), and 7 cardinal virtues (which few of us can remember, but which, according to a website called, rather ambitiously, circles of light, are: Justice, Temperance, Fortitude, Prudence, Knowledge, Wisdom and Understanding.

So, 7 it is.

Enjoy these rants and queries for what they are: one man’s take on the world he lives in. If you like some of the stuff you’ll read here, tell others. If you hate it, and think that I am a godless SOB who deserves to receive the righteous punishment of the lord, then leave these pages now and never return. I don’t need that kind of puritanical ass gravy splashed on my site, and I hope that you have more pleasurable things to do with your time.