April 7, 2024
Larry Dachslager has worked as a teacher, director, and writer in Theatre and Cinema Arts Education for nearly forty years. In 2006, he was the initial recipient of the Emery Weiner School’s Rav Preida Award for Teaching Excellence. In 2012, he earned his BA and MA in Cinema Studies from Columbia College Chicago and The University of Chicago, and he now teaches and directs at The Adelson School. His autobiography, Afternoons in the Dark, was published in 2023.
“Seven is an Odd Number”
By Larry Dachslager
Seven is an odd number.
And by “odd” I mean “weird”
as all numbers are “odd”
to me.
Numbers have been
since birth
the bane of my being.
Teachers and tutors
Labeling bullying, totally unwilling
to bend
or compromise or comprehend
a person whose psyche simply can’t count numbers
in terms of mathematics.
I understand phone numbers,
house numbers,
and
(per my profession)
musical numbers.
I see seven, not as a digit, but a descriptor for
Deadly Sins,
Ages of Man,
and
(pardon the expression)
Dwarfs.
I’m told seven is lucky.
Something in the stars.
Seven.
Whatever.
Why do numbers have all the luck?
Don’t letters count, too?
I have a lucky letter.
It’s “G”
And the notion that G
happens to be
letter number seven
is ever so irrelevant.