Is 13 Really an Unlucky Number?
Is 13 Really an Unlucky Number?

Thoughts from seat C row 5 on a Soutwest flight in route to San Francisco

Is 13 Really an Unlucky Number? When I was booking my ticket a week ago my wife saw I was booking a ticket and asked what day I flying, I replied,  “The 13th”.

She looked at me and said, “You do know that it will be Friday the 13th?”

I smiled and said, “You know me, I like to take risks”, she smiled and that was the end of it. 

Since then this is the first time I have thought about it, but was reminded when I went to the bathroom and there was the always interesting bathroom line conversation going on, this one around the fact that it was the 13th and how the number 13 is so unlucky…

I got back to my seat and was trying to fold my dollar bill into one of the origami patterns that they always have in the back of the airline magazines to prove I could do it because I saw a completed one as I was walking back to my seat. And…

I started thinking about if the number 13 really is an unlucky number.

It dawned on me as I was looking at the dollar bill that maybe the number 13 really is a lucky number in disguise and using it more often would give me, and maybe you now that you are reading this, an advantage because people are programmed to stay away from it. In fact…

It might be something that can be used all over the world because it’s pretty much a universal belief: you usually never see a room number 13, there are not 13th floors in tall buildings and on Friday 13th doing out of the ordinary risky things cause us all to cringe a little.

But think about this, you can find all these things or things that represent them on the back of a US dollar bill ?

The number 13 and the one dollar bill

The number 13 really unlucky?

  • 13 original colonies
  • 13 signers of the Declaration of Independence
  • 13 stripes on our flag
  • 13 steps on the pyramid
  • 13 letters in ‘AnnuitCoeptis,’ (Latin for “God has favored our undertaking”)
  • 13 letters in ‘ E Pluribus Unum, (Latin for “‘a new order has begun.”)
  • 13 stars above the eagle
  • 13 bars on that shield
  • 13 leaves on the olive branch
  • 13 fruits, and if you look closely
  • 13 arrows

I’m starting to think the number 13 is pretty darn lucky. What do you think?

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