Make a Wish

Superstitions are an interesting thing to me.


Perhaps because I'm American, most of them no longer seem to have ties to their original culture. The number thirteen, black cats, green cars, ringing ears...where did all of it come from?  A lot of it is luck based: picking up a coin that's heads up, rabbits feet, four leaf clovers. Luck itself is an interesting concept, especially in that both good luck and bad luck are a consideration. And the notion that things come in threes. Unlucky things: stepping on a crack, seeing a bride on her wedding day, breaking a mirror.

Things that you wish on are equally wide in range. Falling stars, dandelions (a personal favorite), eyelashes, wishbones (great naming, guys. I see what you did there). The eyelash one is tricky in my house; Doberman hair, if you did not know, strongly resembles eyelashes. If you find just one, you really have no way of knowing which it is. Effectively, my dog is covered in wishes.

I in fact have a surfeit of wishbones. I discovered a delightful and easy way to cook whole chickens in the crock pot, and if I find it intact, I always save the wishbone. Having  a wishbone that you don't in fact wish on seems to be a silly thing to me, but I never think to break them with anybody when people are here. It's always when I'm doing dishes with nobody else around, and I see them there on the windowsill. Nobody's commented on them, ever.

What does that say about me, I wonder, that I can have bones on my windowsill and nobody bats an eye?