Why do we throw salt over our shoulders, walk around rather than under ladders, shudder when a black kitty (oh, cute!) crosses our path, carry lucky coins in our pockets?

I was fascinated by superstitions when I was a kid and I now realize it was my interest in such things that led to my interest in ghosts stories, vampires, horror films and comics, and later, the occult and finally Neo-Paganism and modern witchcraft...

Oddly enough I have always found 13 to be a rather lucky or significant number in my life. I graduated 13th in my high school class. It often comes up in the lottery, I find (along with my most lucky number, 23) so I always choose it on those occasions I buy a ticket (once a month or so).

It seems to me that little ritualized behaviors (like those described above) are our way of trying to cheat fate: death, pain, misfortune. As if we make some small move towards striking a bargain with the powers that be. Okay, if I proitiate you in this small way, perhaps I will get that raise I am bucking for, or Mary Ellen will go to the prom with me, or Dad won't find out I spilled cocoa on his new bowling shoes, or my rent won't go up next month. Kind of like non-religious people praying occasionally even though they wonder if, being non-believers, it will actually do any good, but it can't hurt to try...

We want to feel like we have some control. And we do--at least, on a day to day level. It has been said: what you spend your life doing, is what you spend your days doing...the first time I read that, I wanted to: throw my computer in the trash, kick in the screen of my TV, pull the phone out of the wall, and burn every magazine in my house. Then I realized I can easily decide whether something is a waste of time, and if it gives me pleasure and enriches my mind or body or spirit in some way, it can't be all bad. I imagine this is why old folk who still have a glass of whisky and a cigar every night live to be a ripe old age; these things give them pleasure and anything in moderation (except, perhaps, auto-erotic asphyxiation) can't truly harm us.

I think the key is, make the most of it. That's the way to cheat despair and the end waiting for us all (we know not when). If it is pleasurable to sit on a park bench and feed the pigeons, don't feel bad because you never went hang-gliding. If you can't afford a fancy car, put silk throw pillows and bud vases in your old VW. Grow your own food, or at least make grocery shopping as pleasurable as possible. Lost your love? Remember to love the people still in your life. Remember every human needs compassion: even that kid serving your cappucino, even that grouchy bus driver, even the dirty homeless woman muttering to herself under the awning.

Live large, with love and lust, smell the roses, be good to yourself and others. And if performing little superstitious behaviors gets you through the day,