Lucky You

Lucky You was Originally Posted on January 31, 2007 by

A TV show (Inside Edition) reported that many couples are hoping to get married on 7-7-07 this year. One quote of a prospective bride was “Who wouldn’t want to get married on that day”, implying that the marriage will get off on a good start. Hmmmmm

Why do we think some numbers are “lucky” and some are not?

I once took a lava rock back to Kauai not because of bad luck, although I had lots, but more because the rock needed to be back from where it came from. It is a cultural thing.

Have you noticed that tall buildings often have no 13th floor. Well that is not true, I used to work on the 14th floor of a building without an announced 13th floor. So I was really on the 13th floor and got let go as fast as people on other floors! If you want to get technical, there were single and double floors below ground level, so where really was the 13th floor?

Triskaidekaphobia is the fear of the number 13. It is so prevalent that we named it. There are people who are also afraid of Friday the 13th (paraskavedekatriaphobia or friggatriskaidekaphobia).

Tetraphobia, fear of the number 4 in China, Japan, and Korea keeps them from having a 4th floor and Italians don’t like 17.

It is a wonder these buildings can stand on their own without these floors.

As I said, 13 is supposedly unlucky, HOWEVER, it is more prevalent in US society than you can imagine. Take the lowly dollar bill; 13’s all over it. Look closely at the Seal of the US, the eagle with 13 leafs and 13 arrows, 13 stars for the original colonies…”E Pluribus Unum” is 13 letters…

So what makes 7 so lucky? I can tell you that is doesn’t come up more often on the roulette wheel. I will admit it shows up often on slot machines, but only because the manufacturers hope that you will associate luck with that machine and feed it until it pays off!

We have all sorts of things we do to change our luck, throwing salt over our left shoulder, not stepping on cracks in the sidewalk, picking up pennies… many of these luck-changing reasons are forgotten by most. Most of us would not stoop to pick up a nickel, let alone a penny.

Remember penny loafers? They were shoes with a place to put a penny. I wonder if you wore shoes with pennies, could you step on a crack and NOT break your Mothers’ back?

Luckily, I would never do that!

Speaking of luck, imagine how lucky you would be if you knew that just today I had some coffee roasted in Medium. I’ll be shipping it out over the next few days to lucky buyers J