Greens to put money in your pocket and hog jowl and black-eyed peas for luck . . . Like walking in the first snow, getting wet in the first rain of May, knocking on wood, or throwing a pinch of spilled salt over my left shoulder -- I don't really believe in these things -- but I do them anyway, honoring the past and the beliefs of my forebears. I like that kind of continuity, I suppose. But there are a number of beliefs and traditions, customs and habits we inherited from our forebears that are not nearly so harmless. I needn't attempt a list -- just anything that makes a person feel that their personal beliefs trump anyone else's -- I'd like to see these hangovers of a less enlightened past discontinued and obliterated. Here's to 2018 -- May it be a better year for this poor broken world...
