Super Stitches

© 2010 by Joyce Mason
All Rights Reserved

 
I’m not that superstitious. I accentuate the positive and avoid giving back luck and bad vibes any more energy than they deserve—when I can pull off, that means none. I also know how to protect myself from a spiritual perspective, and in general, I feel safe.

My Vedic astrologer says I have what’s tantamount to a good luck charm in my chart. Another friend insists I have what she calls magic dust. If she’s right, most of my magical powers are about as innocuous as Samantha’s on “Bewitched.” That said, I actually think black cats are good omens, and I barely wince when I break a mirror. I do admit, even though Mom is long gone; I still get a little nervous on sidewalks when I step on cracks.(“You’ll break your mother’s back!”) Most of my reactions to the tried-and-true jinxes and ‘stitions are lukewarm … except for one that’s red hot. The two-dollar bill.

Speaking of Mom, I inherited this superstition from her. Like my fear of water, I was always highly susceptible to transfer of my mom’s fears. I’m sure this speaks to the depth of our bonding and psychic cords.

There’s a doozy of a story about why two-buck bills gave her the creeps. Her telling of it was so vivid; I feel like I actually witnessed the incident.

My brother Don and our cousin Lee, close-in age-cousins who got in a lot of trouble together as kids, were on some excursion in the 1940s when they were young men in their late teens. They were on joy ride in the country when they parked beside a lookout point with a great view. They were leaning against the car having a smoke. All of a sudden, there was a miniscule movement. Before they knew it, they had barely caught their balance before going over the cliff with the car. One of them had not engaged the brake.

Don was carrying a two-dollar bill at the time. This unusual denomination became Mom’s personal demon, and she would never carry one again. She blamed the bill on her son and nephew’s near-death experience. Frankly, I thought the fact that they were saved was cause to celebrate. If the two-buck bill was anything, it was their good luck charm. Still, annihilating a vehicle isn’t exactly a good day …

… but none of this reason would ever erase this deeply imbedded family folklore from my mind. The two-dollar bill is so rare; I have hardly ever had to face how it turns me into a blithering idiot on sight.

I hadn’t seen one for years until one arrived in the mail for an advertising promotion. Time or People Magazine? Who knows—or cares. All I knew was that a two-dollar bill had wormed its way into my house, and now I had to do something to get rid of it.

I’ll confess outright; I was afraid to put it in my wallet and drive anywhere with it. Irrational, silly, superstitious—whatever you call it, I cop to them all. No way, no how were that bill and I traveling together in a moving vehicle.

I pondered it for a long time. I wanted to do something useful with the $2, but I didn’t want to evoke the Demon of the Two-Dollar Bill. I considered sending it to my niece or nephew in their Valentine, but if the demon got loose, that might harm them. Out of the question. At some point, I realized that if I couldn’t drive with it on me, the farthest I could go with it would be to walk it to the mailbox. This meant passing it onto someone through the US mail. How could I send it to good and avert disaster?

 While I continued to contemplate this dilemma, I got to thinking about my bamboo plant in my Money Corner (good Feng Shui for wealth) and my Greek glass eye to ward off evil … and how comforted I feel by having a Holly plant near my front door, good for protection. I was starting to think, just maybe, that I’d have to revise my self-assessment about not being very superstitious.

One day it just came to me; give it to Haiti relief. The poor Haitians already had all the bad luck anyone could hold for this season of their collective lives. I didn’t see how it could possibly harm further people who were already devastated. I looked up a list of charities collecting money to help the Haitians rebuild their communities. I sent the $2 to Mercy Corps. I’m sure the word “mercy” in and of itself would erase any bad juju and the $2 would be blessed by a wonderful organization that has provided humanitarian relief around the world since 1979.

Now that I’ve handled that unbidden two bucks, I couldn’t help but wonder. Does this mean I have to give up drinking two-buck Chuck?*

~~~


*For those unfamiliar with it, two-buck Chuck refers is wine sold exclusively at Trader Joe’s from Charles Shaw Winery at $1.99 per bottle. My favorite it the Shiraz. Hard to believe how good it is for the price!

Photo Credits: TWO DOLLAR BILL © Savone Dreamstime.com
EVIL EYE (AMULET) © Eliferen Dreamstime.com


Comment Prompt: What are your superstitions? Like mine, do they leave you in stitches when you really think—and laugh—about them?

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