The cardinal numbers one through ten are a family, each with a life of its own, each with a unique personality, yet interrelated as the members of a family always are, willing or not.
- ONE is the Earth Mother, the fertile womb of all Creation.
- TWO is a lovely little boy, chubby-cheeked and cheerful. He goes willingly into any other number, dividing the Evens neatly, leaving an even half of himself behind when forced to interact with an Odd.
- THREE is a BITCH. A miserable, scrawny old maid, forever poking and prying, causing dissention and unease. The very worst of the Odds.(She is very mean to FOUR.)
- FOUR, poor FOUR! The uncle of little TWO, he is from the rich side of the family but is very shy and unassuming. He is often treated badly, coming up short in multiples, ending up just under or over a multiple of TEN, as in 32 or 28. His only comfort is to be solidly related to 20, in itself a happy combination of TWO and TEN genes.
- FIVE is a merry "Ho, Ho, Ho" sort of a guy, very regular, appearing just twice in every set of TEN. Unfortunately, he prefers to remain a bachelor. (On second thought, who could live day in, day out with someone who always has a silly grin on his face?)
- SIX is the sister of THREE but you'd never know it -- they are as different as chalk and cheese. SIX is buxom, generous, a paradoxical Even derived from Odd genes. There should be more like her. (Her only fault is that she is mean to SEVEN. But then, most everyone is.)
- SEVEN, the scapegoat of the family. Everything is his fault. Trouble with SIX in FORTY (only 42), even worse with THREE in the TWENTY range (21, you can't be further away from the center than that).
- EIGHT, naturally, is one of the golden Evens. Plays beautifully with TWO, very good to SIX, gives the Odds like FIVE and even THREE a solid, rounded Even multiple. A real winner, that EIGHT!
- NINE, a class act. Her father's daughter (TEN is her old man). You can always find the connection with NINE. She appears when you remove a cardinal from its relationship with TEN ( SIX from SIXTY, and there's the multiple of SIX and NINE).
- TEN is the Sugar Daddy, giving back ten-fold. He loves all his children, good and bad. Truly a wonderful man.
PS - I learned my numbers before the days of programming.