Tell Me My Fortune

When I was in college someone told my fortune. Maybe not such a strange thing for a Louisiana girl to do. It is almost a cultural rule to believe in ghosts, fortune tellers, and voodoo rituals.

Okay. Maybe not a rule. Many Louisianians do not believe in such things. To be honest, I don't believe in it either. Maybe it is one of the quirky and fun things about Louisiana culture. Sort of like Mardi Gras, Crawfish boils, and finding water moccasins beneath your sofa.

A wrinkled woman with missing teeth and a knotted walking stick read my cards. Tarot cards maybe? I dont' know ... she called them cards.

Okay. She was not wrinkled, toothless, nor did she use a walking stick. In fact she was middle age, pretty, and drinking a cup of coffee. She did not actually read cards either .... Fine. I'll admit it. She was just the run of the mill palm reader that sits along New Orleans streets hoping for a dollar to tell you something useless.

(Lousianians are also story tellers. That is also cultural. We like to spin a good yarn.)

This palm reader told me that I would have lots of children, live a happy life, and one day I'd be rich.

She did not tell me I'd give birth to 25 week quadruplets ... that my life would dramatically change... or that I would be poor before I ever became rich.

Because of this I think it is okay to say a wrinkled and toothless woman who used a knotted walking stick read my cards. It is a more interesting story to tell. That way ... I feel like I got my money's worth.

So what about my fortune? I think we have a definite hand in the fortunes we make. I don't need to pay someone a dollar to read their hand and tell me my future.