This is my 13th post and gasp, it is written on a Friday.
Stay calm. Run to your happy place. Shut the blinds. Find cover. The world will be fine.
We profess ourselves to be a society of progress and science but we live contradictory lives of superstition.
I dare you to find a tall building with a thirteenth floor. I am sure there are some, but they are impossible to find. Given the choice, no one wants to live in them, and what would you do with whole empty floor? Amazingly, the building that bravely identifies the thirteenth floor stands as gracefully as those who cower away. The lives of the people inside is the same.
I often poke fun of people who take up residence on the fourteenth floor, because as sure as a rat has an ass, the fourteenth floor IS the thirteenth floor. You just have to count up.
13.
666
The number of the beast.
Bad things come in threes. Knock on wood. God help you if you just spilled some salt.
You must hurry. Evil has been summoned. Contact is imminent. The forces of darkness are gathering, ready to unleash their rage and fury on your life.
For my parents when the Nazi army invaded Poland in 1939, things did not come in threes. It came in thousands and it came fast and often. When the war ended, the British empire abandoned us and all Ally soldiers returned home to their families, yet Joseph Stalin and his minions continued being the harbinger of bad things.
On April 7th, 1994, when the Rwandan genocide of over 850,000 people began, while the world watched a white bronco being chased through the highways and bi-ways of Los Angeles, evil came in waves. It didn't come in threes. It came, wiped its ugly brow, and it came again and again. Over and over and over.
Ask a soldier or anyone for that matter, who has served in any capacity, in any war, on any side, how often their thoughts return to those missions? Ask them when it will stop? Don't dare to say that good things will come to them in threes.
Superstition.
It is a subtle evil of our time because it transforms us into slaves of fate, instead of being the rightful masters of our time.
I really don't care if you bless yourself, avoid black cats, or knock yourself on your forehead because you cannot find any wooden furniture. You probably look silly and cute.
What I care about is that you and I never lose sight of the fact that life is meant to be lived. Lived well. It is meant to be filled with meaning and purpose.
We are free.
We are not predetermined.
Do something today.
Reap the benefits of your actions sometime tomorrow.
Continue telling people on the fourteenth floor that they are on the thirteenth floor.
