15 December 2006

Superstitions

Eye-roll me right now. Just get it over with, I'll wait.

Ready?

My mom is superstitious and has passed some of her beliefs over to me.

I just realized today that I had not followed two of her superstitions and strangely, my luck has turned for the worse.

The most obvious superstition that I've not followed is a Christmas tradition. My mom is the only person that I've ever heard this from. It could be she made it up just so she could be festive for longer, I'm not sure.

She never took the Christmas tree down until after the new year. It was bad luck to do it sooner, so she said.

Two years running, I've taken the tree down early. Two years running, we've had struggles. Hmmm.

I think I'm going to wait to take down the tree until the middle of January. Perhaps even leave it up year-round: Groundhog Day, Valentines Day, St. Patrick's Day...you get the idea. Although I'm pretty sure the Mad Genius wouldn't stand it for too long. I imagine I would come home one day to find the tree thrown in the middle of the yard.

Anyway, I'm off topic. What a shock.

Another superstition is not to turn the calendar page until the first day of the month.
Some people that I've worked with would tear off the page one or two days early and I always cringed. I don't remember the logic of this superstition but I'm sure it's something about rushing time or not honoring time.

(Also, not so much a superstition, but something that bothers me is marking off calendar days. So many people do this. Cross out the day as it passes. What are you counting down to? It just seems a little morbid.)

I've been lax about my calendar this year. I only bought one, and bought it well into January. As I've been home, I have been lazy about flipping the pages when the month changes. Yikes. I haven't been keeping track of time.

Now I've already been given three calendars. I have one on the refrigerator, one on the wall next to my desk and the other is waiting patiently to be posted in January because we've learned not to do it early, haven't we?

Maybe if I follow these two superstitions, I'll be golden again. It's worth a shot.

Okay, you can eye-roll one last time. But, I bet you think about this when you see calendars next time you shop and when you defrock the Christmas tree. You can thank me...or curse me, you choose...later.

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