December 30, 2008

As I sit and write this, there are just a couple of days left in 2008. And 2009 is almost upon us. Which brings the question, "Where does the time go?" That's really a pretty silly question, isn't it? Everyone knows that time doesn't go anywhere. Unless it steals our credit cards and takes a long vacation on a sunny tropical island, leaving us with a lot of questionable charges on our next bill. But I digress.

Time does seem to pass pretty quickly. Seemingly even more so the older I get. Events that were seemingly pretty recent actually happened years ago, but the memories of those events are still clear. Unless it is something that I really need to remember, like what I'm supposed to get from the grocery store.

So I was thinking about something that happened not all that long ago, in 1987. And that got me to thinking about how we said that. We would say 1987 as "nineteen eighty seven". But we say "2008" as "two thousand eight". Or there are those who put that superfluous "and" in there: "two thousand and eight".

Which brings me to my next question: When will we change the way we say the years, if ever? Why don't we say "twenty oh eight"? Well, because that just sounds silly, doesn't it. But then one hundred years ago, they did say "nineteen oh eight", didn't they? And that doesn't sound as silly. Especially when you consider that "one thousand nine hundred eight" is quite a mouthfull.

Maybe it will be in 2010 or so. Or how about 2015 - "twenty fifteen" sounds easier to say than "two thousand fifteen". And it is one less word to type, although everyone would just type 2015 as the year instead of "twenty fifteen". And surely by 2108, people will just say "twenty-one oh eight". Although I doubt I will be around to worry about that.

So here's hoping you had a great 2008 and that you have a stellar 2009. No matter how you say it.

Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever. - Hebrews 13:8

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