Lucky number 13?

It's Friday the 13th, and New York is as wacky as ever (or as usual, I should say). Nothing seems out of the ordinary yet, but of course, we almost all have the thought, "What's going to happen today?" As if Friday the 13th isn't freaky enough, we're on the brink of a full moon, so the vibes are shaking and the balances are off. In keeping with Friday the 13th curiosity, a co-worker sent and email today that contained an article on the origins of why Friday the 13th is so unlucky. It wasn't much more than I already knew, but a section of the last paragraph is what got my attention: "Yet the number 13 has a lesser-known role as a lucky number: At the birth of our nation, thirteen colonies formed the original United States of America..." And my reply to that is, look where we are today. Lucky? Uh, no, Ted, no.

Where to begin? Where to begin? Ah yes...volcanic eruptions! Not only is Mt. St. Helens in a constant state of eruption (yes tremors, steam and ash all make up eruptions), now Augustine Volcano in Alaska may erupt as well. On Wednesday, five miles of ash was spewed into the sky. Luckily it did not effect air travel, but hell, five miles of ash is pretty impressive for a volcano that hasn't erupted in 20 years. The last time it did in 1986, Augustine spewed seven miles of ash into the air. America is not a place one connects with volcanoes, but anything is possible these days. The next thing you know, the land around Old Faithful Geyser will cave in creating the country's largest sink hole.

And what's with the recent wildfires in the Midwest? No rain and no humidity make for extremely dry and dangerous conditions. And all the while homes are burning and land is being destroyed, California is being drowned in mud and rain. Is it just me or does their seem to be a problem with distribution in this country. As if giving to rich instead of the poor isn't bad enough, now they're controlling Mother Nature, too? I wonder how much she's being paid off.

We just had the mining disaster in West Virginia. What a way to ring in the New Year, right? Twelve people died and the only survivor is being kept alive in a medically induced coma. Luckily, he is responding to stimuli, but no one knows how much he will recover overall. I'm sorry to say it, but big business needs to stop digging and drilling and start looking into new ways to get energy resources. If soldiers aren't dying in Iraq for President Bush's precious oil, they're dying in West Virginia digging for another resource we can do without. Do you know how much damage coal does to the atmosphere, let alone people's lungs?

And America's biggest current blunder--President Bush. Need I say more? Since he's been in office, we've lost thousands of lives on September 11th, we've lost even more lives in his personal war against Iraq (weapons of mass destruction, my ass!), we've lost lives, homes and businesses to a record long and dangerous hurricane season, and it just seems to keep happening. Can we really afford to keep going like this?

Look at our overall past: the country was founded by religious rejects fleeing from their persecutors; we had a revolution and a civil war less than 100 years apart; we've experienced a depression, two world wars, the assassination of presidents, as well as attempts on others' lives; we've had slavery of both blacks and whites; the destruction of Native American livelihood and Japanese concentration camps. The scary thing is, we;ve only been in this country since the 1600's. I'm not talking about a long period of history. Just about 400 years is not a long time when you look at the rest of the world. It's going to be the fall of Rome all over again--the rise of a great world power, only to fall to it's own demise.

So, is 13 a lucky number? In the case of the United States of America, I think not. We've had a rough and unhappy past, and all too quickly for such a young country. I know that our Pilgrim ancestors did not exactly have our current state in mind when they landed here, but we have to look at our past and see what we've done to this country. What used to be so beautiful is now a giant strip mall surrounded by factories and oil refineries. This isn't the place it once was, and it never will be again. Is it really bad luck or just bad management. Grab your kid's history and do the research. You'll be surprised.

Pirate superstitions: Old Sea Proverb "Friday is an unlucky day to start a Voyage"; whistling onboard was thought to bring doom to any ship; Church Bells heard at sea mean someone on the ship will die; red heads bring bad luck to a ship (oh, woe is me!); a coin placed under the masthead brings good luck; the first nail nailed into a ship was tied with a red ribbon to ward off storms; red sky in morning, sailor's warning, red sky at night, sailor's delight.