How 's Your Luck

"With a little bit of Luck"

   Part of a line from one of my favorite songs from the musical, My Fair Lady. How many of us sophisticated, non-superstitious folks put our hands behind our backs and cross our fingers when hoping to score a prize?

  How many of you checked to see if you could still cross your fingers?

   Luck is the joker in most endeavors. You work, you learn, and you persist then one day the world spins, your 'luck' changes and you win. Did you unconsciously follow the rules?

   Let's see how many we can remember?

   We wish people good luck, especially actors & musicians before a performance by saying, "Break a leg."

   Find a penny head-side up, pick it up, it will bring good luck.

   Find a pin, pick it up and you'll have good luck all day long.

   Luck of the draw is an old gambler's adage or we can stretch it a bit to include the survivor of a western shootout. 

   Carrying a rabbit's left-hind foot or a buckeye in your pocket will bring good luck.
   Finding a four-leaf clover will bring food luck.

   Your chances are 1 in 10,000 based on the material I read in Wiki. One man in Japan found a clover stem with 56 leaves. How much luck did that bring?

   Four leaves on a clover stem is according to the scientists a sport (one time change in a plant) or a rare recessive gene which produces the famous symbol of good luck. As a kid I spent many hours on my hands and knees searching for one. I still look down to see if today is the lucky day when I find it.

   Celtic symbolism gives each leaf an attribute: faith, hope, love, and luck.

   The other side of the coin is bad luck. We all know the famous line from Hee Haw, "If it wasn't for bad luck, I'd have no luck at all."

   When things go bad, then you're down on your luck.

   If you break a mirror you'll have seven years bad luck.

   Walking under a ladder will bring you bad luck or a crack on the head or both.
   A black cat walks across your path is a sure sign of bad luck in the future.

   Friday the 13th means bad luck all day long. Got a good thing going for us in 2017, we won't have an unlucky Friday the 13th until October. So enjoy your summer.

   Step on a crack, break your back is another symbol of bad luck. That little rhyme popped through my head as I edited our new novel, Tempered Blade, which is coming soon. Unconscious writing where we have a character being careful not to step on a crack.
   It provided the inspiration to find and remember things lucky and unlucky to share with you. Today is your lucky day.

Nash Black, author of Legacy of Death  

Proverbs: It is Said

Somewhere in the 1960s there was a book published with a title near to How to Lie with Statistics. We proclaim that 23% of something is harmful. Are we actually lying or ignoring the 77% as if it doesn't exist to prove a point? I'm not sure if that was the correct title, but it brings to mind how we use old proverbs or adages as illustrations of our thoughts.
   At times the short sentences trip from our tongue without our even being aware of where they became a part of our vocabulary. We see them printed on plaques, on billboards, or used a filler in bulletins, magazines, and newspapers.
   Benjamin Franklin used proverbs in his Poor Richard's Almanac and they are what survives today to be printed over and over in multiple editions. The real fun is collecting proverbs that contradict each other.
   Nash is skilled at ferreting out the twists and is always on the lookout for more to add to the file though I'm a bit skeptical that he isn't stretching it a bit. We're throwing out a few for you to remember and enjoy. You've heard these most of your life, just as we have.

   Too many cooks spoil the broth. Many hands make light work.

   Absence makes the heart grow fonder. Out of sight, out of mind.

   The seed you sow, another reaps. As you sow, so shall you reap.

   Two birds of prey do not keep company. Birds of a feather flock together.

   Nothing ventured, nothing gained. Be sure you are right, then go ahead.

   A formal fool speaks naught but proverbs. A proverb is one man's wit and all men's wisdom.

   Success makes some crimes honorable. No wickedness has any ground of reason.

   Never do evil that good may come of it. The end justifies the means.

   Fortune helps the bold. Good fortune ever fights on the side of the prudent.

   He who would fine must seek. Everything comes to him who waits.

   By education most have been mislead. Education makes the man.

   Push on, keep moving. A rolling stone gathers no moss.

  When you consider proverbs, which we were taught is the collective wisdom of the ages, in this light is it any wonder we're often confused? Both are plausible until they are looked at side-by-side.
   Does anyone have others we can add to our dozen? We'd love to have them for our collection.