Tuesday, January 1, 2013

2013

I guess if you're a superstitious person, the year 2013 is not going to bode well for you.  There is that 13 in it, after all.  Unlike any large hotel, we can't pretend 13 doesn't exist......not for 365 days.

Fortunately, for me, 13 is one of my favorite numbers so I'm expecting a good year.   I also realized that this is the first year I've ever been alive that has ended in a 13.  I'm happy about that.  I won on roulette in Nassau, Bahamas, betting on 13 twice in a row.  I always play 13 on roulette on any Friday the 13th, with remarkably consistent good luck.

I like 13.  A baker's dozen, and I am a baker, once in awhile.  Mostly, a baker's dozen is exactly how many I eat of anything particularly savory.  I need to lose exactly 13 pounds.

Let's hope 2013 is a phenomenal year.  To hell with fiscal cliffs, the NRA (No Rational Argument), televangelists, tea party bags, politics and large corporations.  2013 is the year of people who believe in very little, which sums me up in a nutshell.  What we do believe in is so fantastical that the beliefs can't even be considered rational.  I hope 2013 turns everything upside down; and I believe that this is exactly what the Mayans were predicting. 

Let's forget about the way we were, and concentrate on the way we want to be.  For me, its living in a just and poetic world. 

4 comments:

Paul Kirby said...

As you suggested the Mayans never predicted the end of the world, that was more or less a Hollywood construct. Their calendar ran in cycles of up to 5000 years. This was simply the end of one era and the beginning of another. Across Latin America there were large celebrations around December 21st in anticipation. I read a speech by Evo Morales, the Bolivian President, in which he describes the new cycle as an era of possibilities for the human race, much like the so-called Age of Aquarius. Of course it will require much more than the alignment of the planets to sort ourselves out.

As regards 13, our superstitions surrounding it arise from western/christian tradition (13 apostles at the last supper). The Chinese consider it lucky.

Sailors have always been notoriously superstitious, no less so than those sailors of the British Navy in it's hay-day. One particular superstition was a cause of great consternation to the Amiralty, for they could get no sailor to put to sea on a Friday, the day of the week, they believed, Jesus was crucified. To counter this, the Admiralty, on a Friday, commisioned a new warship to be built. Work commenced on a Friday, was finished on a Friday. The ship was lauched on a Friday and was called HMS Friday. The ship, of course, set sail on a Friday with a pertrified crew of press ganged convict sailors.

The ship was never heard of again. Not a splinter. Nothing. Nada. True story?

Citizen X said...

Fascinating! My uncle was a Navy Frogman in WWII.....he believes in sea monsters; so do I. And UFO's, magic, and miracles.

Here's hoping.

Paul Kirby said...

I like to think the sailors mutinied the ship just over the horizon and out of sight. I can just see them getting together every Friday on the beach just around sundown, somewhere in the Pacific, sipping Pina Coladas, toasting the Admiralty, surrounded by Hula Hula girls.

Paul Kirby said...

After exhaustive research and large scotches I can reveal that the sailors of the ill-fated HMS Friday did indeed survive. They eventually settled in Boise, Idaho where their descendants went on to found the 'Thank God Its Friday' franchise. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3R5gHF0vzew