The Penny You Know

Today I went for a jog. It was the first time I’ve run since I got sick and only about the third or fourth time I’ve run in a few months so I was hurting a little bit. My pace kinda sucked and my breathing was subpar but Nike says “just do it” and I say how high, so I made it through.

I walked around the block to cool down and I passed a penny, heads up. Now my grandma was a lot like Nike, in the way that she also had slogans and one of hers was “see a penny, pick it up, all day long you’ll have good luck” (with the understood condition that it has to be heads up for the good luck to take effect. If it’s tails up we would leave those where they were). I’ve already demonstrated my ability to follow orders in the previous paragraph so you can probably guess what I did.

Gotcha. If you guessed that I picked up the penny, you’re wrong. Now to be fair, I used to pick up all the pennies. I was desperate for good luck I guess. Or maybe I thought that picking up one cent at a time would be integral in building great personal wealth. I don’t know, I just did what my grandma told me. Over the years though, I’ve picked up less pennies. I don’t know why. Some days my back hurts. Sometimes I convince myself that I don’t need luck, or that someone else needs luck more than me. Whatever the case is, I often find a way to justify leaving the luck on the ground lately.

Today though, there was a second penny. It was also heads up. I saw it and thought, “huh. Double luck just laying on the street waiting for some takers,” but I didn’t pick up the second penny either! Two times, I left luck behind, convinced I didn’t need it. At that moment I was starting to believe that maybe luck is just following me around, ready to fight for me if I ever I doubt myself. I began to believe that luck would always be there on my side as I progress down my path. Then I saw it. The third penny.

Gleaming in the Hollywood morning sun, it called out my name. I resolved to pick this penny up. Surely if the world offers you three servings of luck, you should probably oblige. It’s like the universe is begging to help you get to where you’re going. You’ve chosen the copper lined path of dream facilitation and everyone is rooting for you. Have some freaking luck for crying out loud!

I knelt down to claim my prize. On the way down though, I saw it.

Tails.

There was no third scoop of luck in my post-run sundae. I got greedy, and passed up two opportunities because I banked on a third, and now I’ve no luck to my name. I’ve had a totally regular day today. Nothing particularly lucky happened to me. All regular shit. Next time, I’ll pick up the first penny.

-J.P.