superstitious--keep writing number 162

When I was 23, I was vegan and traveled in the UK for a month. It was 2001, before 9/11. Our flights were cheap but we traveled without pocket computers. We carried a small book of vegan-friendly restaurants and groceries.  I don't remember how we found places to stay. In Aberdeen, we had a room that felt like a suite in a palace. We stayed in a cramped hostel in Ireland. In Belfast,  we stayed at the home of a woman who had us sleep in separate rooms because of our perceived genders. She was perplexed almost to anger that we would not eat the eggs she gathered from the chickens that morning. But she nearly broke when my partner stirred his tea with a knife.

It's bad luck, she said.

He was untroubled by the revelation that cutlery choices could affect your future. 

I never thought of myself as particularly superstitious but I grew up catholic and my grandparents are Siciallian so, everything is relative I guess. The pageantry of my youth turned me off to organized religion but not to carrying stones or coins for luck.  I've never made declarations about the existence of ghosts but I am not going to forsake the idea that energy takes many forms and may linger.

What do I know?

I may have seemed very certain of my beliefs as a 23 year old refusing a very local chicken egg.

Isn't that what your 20s are for? Being certain and then having all your beliefs destroyed or questioned so you can rebuild in your 40's as somebody who is certain because of evidence and experience. And more aware of what they don't know.

I wanted to hear your superstitions. I wanted to know what you consider a superstition. 

This was not the original idea for October's card. 

In September, at the start of two months of an ambitious schedule, I  gave a talk from my studio for the SFCB From the Bench Series. The night before, I realized it would be cozier from my camper office. My studio was a mess. 

I usually have plenty of ideas for Keep Writing postcards, but occasionally I get stuck or ideas feel stale or I am thinking of classes I want to teach or talks I am about to give and can't focus on what I need to design a good card. The day of the talk, I was in the middle of designing a few Keep Writing postcards..

I thought it would be a good idea to plan the postcard live, during the call.

It was not.

It was fun, but there was not enough time to execute brainstorming, weeding out false hopes, and sifting a nugget of truth from the mud of ideas.  I don't remember the idea we were working with ( you can watch it unfold here).  I kept the scraps of our notes and when I could not make the collective idea work, I returned to our original list of subjects and was drawn to superstitions. And so it went.

 As a bonus,  I got to carve a two color evil eye.

While writing this, I cleaned out the cup holders of my truck and discovered a glass evil eye charm from a yard sale find from this summer.

I often think my ideas are like lightning but they are the slow burn of repetitive suggestions.

For the record, I believe in moving energy--setting intentions, carrying stones and smells and spells for protection and encouragement. I find churches overwhelming, even when they are so gaudy I want to be angry.  And I try to pay attention to the solstice, watch the sun rise and set if I can. 

I stir my tea with whatever is handy.