Good Juju
(by Aimee Lee Ball)
There are so many times during the day that I think about my mother simply because of her rules about tempting fate and and assurances for summoning good juju:
Always exit by the same door that you enter. (This maxim can be extremely inconvenient in a building with multiple ports of access or egress, but Mom’s voice is in my head.)
Never jinx a trip to the airport by saying, as you get on the freeway, “The traffic doesn’t seem too bad.” (The Jewish term is "Kinehora," meaning: Don't invoke the evil eye.)
If you’re eating something fattening, like pretzels or chocolate mints, have three pieces (our family’s “lucky number”—anything like a hospital room or a bank account had to have a 3 in it).