this is not my lucky day

This is NOT my lucky day

By David Verveer

First of all, I have to admit that I do not believe in luck, bad eye, lucky number or any thing else that can not be explained logically other than "coincidentally". Would I have been superstitious, I would not have dared to write this letter before the bad luck had finished showing its ugly head. I will start with relating what occurred to me this morning until now (the time is just past 8, 30 in the morning).

My wife informed me this morning, that I forgot to congratulate my oldest brother on his 75th birthday, which took place 4 days ago, something, which until now, never happened before, as birthdays are very important in our family, and celebrated yearly with the traditional birthday call on the actual day of the happy occasion, when the culprit changes the number of years on this earth. In order, that the others (my other brother and sister) won't forget, we phone each other as reminder to phone. This year, nobody phoned, all three of us forgot, shame in the family, is it the age, or simply bad luck (that doesn't exist).

Of course, I phoned my brother, the moment the time was decent, as forgetting his birthday is one thing, but phoning somebody out of bed, telling him that you forgot his birthday, is really chutzpah (cheek), my sister in law answered the phone, and told me that all three of us failed to phone, you must admit, that is not very pleasant to hear, but my brother was very large, and after my confession, he officially forgave me, which means that when we are called up (to heaven or hell) he can not use this as an accuse for complains on his brothers.

But enough about the birthday, drinking my morning coffee, reading in the mean time about the problems of the world, the economic crisis and local politics, feeling happily a little bid as outsider, as I have no investments (what so ever) which are in danger of loosing their value, local politics such as "who is joining which party" really does not concern me, as all politicians are the same type of nincompoops (it’s a real word in the dictionary). Than, for no reason at all, my slurp of coffee went in the wrong direction, and I spit coffee on the computer and on the notes,I wrote down, for a project I am working on, making the notes illegible, the floor and computer smelly and dirty, which I had to wipe up and clean. And even though, I did not drink a lot of coffee this morning, I think that it is wiser not to try again.

I am not a breakfast person, and my daily breakfast consists most times only out a cup of strong coffee and a portion of yogurt, this keeps me going till noon, when I eat my warm meal, people tell me that this is really unhealthy, as your breakfast is the most important meal of the day, but since I already reached the age of pensioners in relatively good health, (knock on wood), and most of those who warned me about the importance of breakfast, developed during the days, different health complains, the need for an healthy breakfast might be in the same group of alarmists promoting health foods, no red meat, caloric poor foods, and all the bullshit, which we are exposed to daily, by radio and TV.

If you really believe all those slogans sold to you by the media, it is a wonder you made it till today, and if you add to this, those green maniacs, who tell you that modern live is killing you, slowly but surely burning you up, reading that another oil tanker was kidnapped by terrorists near the Somali coast, that the Government is not yet prepared to guaranty the value of our pensions, that the settler fanatics in Hebron are treating their neighbors and our soldiers like real Nazis, and that I promised my wife to clean the house, and I would have added the sad demise of our dog, but that happened more than 25 years ago, a very sad fact but slowly and surely it seem to lose its punch. But you understand my current trend of thoughts, life is hard, but truly I am not complaining (which does not help), and compare my lot with anybody else, and realize than I am damn lucky (even though, I don't believe in luck, which is simply superstition (and making sure, some more words, such as: "pfu-pfu" – an expression by elder Ashkenazi, against the "bad eye" – somebody who spreads bad luck, but I was told that a Hamsa (and / or mezuzah, near the entrance door of the house has the same strength as "pfu-pfu", but be careful, an single EYE hanger is NOT sufficient strong to defend you against those witches).

Thus, with an optimistic expectation for the remainder of the day, I wish you well, please note, the sun will come back, even if you were so clumsy to spill salt.