The other day I was talking to an ex-cop who had decided to take on a second career as a teacher. We were discussing a book he had published about recidivism and crime. He broached on a topic about women having a 6th sense about people. He based it on a primal need to nurture and protect their young. He explained that studies showed women had an uncanny way of sensing danger in people. They had some way of feeling when something wasn't quite right with a person. I have heard women reference this many times over the years, and they worded it just like that. "Something was just not right about that person or that situation."
Are there psychic people in this world who can predict the future or reach out to some other dimension? It has always been a puzzle to me. Years ago, I was in the French Quarter with some friends and family when a palm reader offered to show us some of his tricks. Aside from the usual layout or inscription in the lines of our hands he went on to explain that he first will ask the person to put their hands face down on the table. And simply the way they did this already told the guy a great deal about the person's personality to build on. Kind of like a cheat.
If the person put their hands close to their body and close together it revealed a totally different personality than a person who boldly put them far apart and close to the reader's body. If fingers were spread out said a different story than if they were pressed close together. Did this tell if they would have four children and a two-car garage, I doubt it. But it does lend to the understanding that our body language and our mannerisms are very telling about who we are and how we are.
Back in 1999 I wrote about the famous fortune cookie. My words: I'm not sure exactly how a piece of paper curled up in a cookie can manage to be so accurate, but it is always for me. And here are my theories. It is quick and no drama or great use of adjectives. Second, it's positive and never warns not to get on a train or bus. And third it doesn't require great expense. With the cost of a quick Chinese buffet you get one simple, "You are a very wise and noble person." How can that go wrong?
Reading back over this column I was once again reminded how busy my life once was. I was washing dishes and laundry. A plumber was digging around and within our house to find a leak. There was a stack of bills and college work to complete. The TV was blaring, the cat was scratching, and a neighbor brought over a box of Chinese food in case I hadn't had time to cook lunch.
Scarfing down the lunch I popped open the fortune cookie as I returned to my typewriter it read, "Your ability to juggle many tasks will take you far." Reading back over this column from over 25 years ago I was quite prepared to make this my future motto. And it did turn out to serve me well!
My words back then, "Now personally, I think we accept some advice as law, and we reject other as hearsay. The faith found in acceptance sets positive things in motion thus bringing a result much like we were told would happen all along. I hope the ritual of fortune cookies lives on for generations. And I hope my ability to juggle many tasks will take me far. If it doesn't, I guess we can call it Chinese Irony."
Running across this old column was a type of irony within itself. I do believe we women have a type of 6th sense, and we know when to take a great fortune and tack it up in our office to own as a reality. No need to have our palms read. Fingers spread far apart and flat out on the table. We women have a gift.
