Broken mirrors, black cats, spilled salt and other superstitious don’t faze me. Broken mirror? Someone’s going to end up with a teeny glass shard stuck in a bunion. Nothing peroxide and tweezers can’t handle. Black cat? Heeere, kitty, kitty… Spilled salt? Meh.
But then again, there is my left eye. It blinks and functions just like its partner on the right, but sometimes…it twitches.
Oooh! Gives you shivers just thinking about it, doesn’t it?
If you felt no shivers, it’s probably because you didn’t grow up with a mother who, despite being a sane and balanced person, would let an eye twitch – a left eye twitch -- rock her world. For her, the Left Eye Twitch was a portent of The It. The It was sure to cause the Twitchee to become deeply grieved or vexed with frustration in the very near future.
How she came to believe it, I’ll never know.
Yet here I am at forty-two years old, and when my left eye twitches or tics, I can’t help but think of mom’s goofy superstition. Probably because somewhere deep within, I kind of believe it to be true. Then before I know it, I’m dreading, looking, waiting for The It to happen so when my apple cart does get upset, I won’t be as upset about it.
Pretty silly, huh? But isn’t that what superstition is about anyway? Blinking here, tossing salt there, hopping out of a cat’s way, blessing sneezers – all because we’re trying to avoid or cushion the blow of bad luck on one level or another?
Listen, bad luck, or real life or The It – will happen. We live in a broken world and to some extent, we’re broken people. The It happens to everyone.
Sometimes The It will hurt. Sometimes The It comes out of the blue. But if you’re like my mom – and to a certain extent, me, you just look for The It when your left eye tells you to.
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