Bad Luck?

Here's the third random but not random thing about me I'd like to share: I secretly believe in the power of bad luck and giant eyeballs.

No, really. Don't laugh. I think everyone has a fear or two they know is irrational. My uncle, for example, is very frightened of tulips. He's afraid their toothy little mouths will somehow eat him when he's not watching them very carefully. And more than one of my children are deathly afraid of dandelions. One boy is afraid of the puffy yellow dandelions and has been chased around by his older brother on more than one occasion. The boy said he was "just trying to share flowers" with the kid. Yeah, right. Another son is very afraid of dandelions, but only after all the puffy seeds have gone away. You can NOT get him to walk on the grass when these bald poky things are in evidence. No way.

I myself am particularly scared of sunflowers. They are demonic. They have this one giant eyeball in the middle, and they stare at you. It's the stare of death. You have to be *right there* staring up at one of these horrid plants to get the full terror of this situation. Just dwell on the idea of a whole field of sunflowers bobbing in the breeze. Are you scared yet? It's ok. We're all safe here.

I also know when things are really bad luck, NOT to tempt God and push it. Do NOT open an umbrella in the house, because that's bad luck. God knows you know it's bad luck, so He will cause bad luck to happen to you if you do this. Knowledge is responsibility, so don't. That's just common sense, right?

I'm also a little scared of donation solicitations in the mail. You know that if you DON'T give money to these people, you are tempting fate because "this could happen to YOU!" The mailer tells me so. It's almost like you're tempting God that YOUR KID could get this bad blood disease unless you give now! And don't get me started on chain letters online... I throw all this stuff away and hit the "delete" button, but yikes.

I have lots of strange beliefs like this. I'm sure if you sat down and talked with me, I'd tell you that OF COURSE being scared of sunflowers is very silly. But EEEEK don't bring one into my house, ok??