I have never considered myself to be a very superstitious type of person. Sure, there are times that I may have worn a particular shirt and something good happened and something in my mind may have made a connection. But the logical part of my brain tells me that one thing really doesn't have anything to do with the other. At the same time, I have found myself falling into a mindset that if I don't follow a particular “ritual” when faced with some kind of performance, then I go into the performance feeling it is “doomed” before it even starts. Then the whole self-fulfilling prophecy thing kicks in and little things begin to happen to sabotage the planned activity or performance. I'm sometimes amazed at the power we allow our own minds to have over many of the tasks that face us.
I do think there are times when “superstitions” can become a bit comical, if not a little irritating to those of us who don't put a lot of stock into such things. I was recently faced with such a situation. I was at a local drug store to pick up an item and the person in front me in line at the cashier discovered that the total cost of her items happened to be “something” dollars and 63 cents. The woman almost panicked, saying “Oh, I can't have anything with a three and a six together!” Since this person had already run their debit card, the cashier was forced to take every item off so the customer could put one item back so their total would not have a three and a six together. Now, I am usually one who takes the attitude of “live and let live.” If this person chooses to live their life avoiding the numbers three and six, then I wish them well. I would even send them a birthday card on their 63rd birthday (can you imagine what that year might do to this person?). But on this particular afternoon, I had someplace to go and my patience was stretched a bit thin by this little numerological adventure. On my out of the parking lot, I noticed this person's license plate had a three and six stamped on it. I'm still trying to wrap my mind around that particular factoid.
So, I do have a request. If you are in line at the drug store, a fast food establishment or grocery store and the total of your bill happens to contain your particular “unlucky” number and there are people waiting in line behind you; please, for the sake of all that is good and decent, simply live with it. I assure you, if you leave the store and a brick falls off the roof and hits you in the middle of your possibly inadequately provisioned cranium, it will have had nothing to do with the digits in the total of your sales receipt.
Now, I need to do some laundry, I'm gonna buy lottery tickets tomorrow and I need to wear my “lucky shirt.”