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Catherine...
Find a penny, pick it up, and all the day you’ll have good luck.
Why do we say that? We know it’s not true. There’s nothing inherently providential about locating a disc of copper-plated zinc. It doesn’t even rhyme. It’s a stupid thing to say, and even stupider to say to a child—because a child will believe you. A child will spend hours picking up all manner of crap on the street, seeking good luck in the form of a completely outdated form of coinage. Her hands will get filthy, which means her hair and dress will get filthy, and I don’t even want to think about what goes into her mouth.
And yet when she actually finds a penny—when she picks it up and holds it out for me to see, like she’s just been awarded the Olympic gold for Loose Change Discovery—her smile is worth any number of dirty dresses. And I feel extraordinarily lucky to be able to see that.
Maybe there’s some truth in that adage after all.
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