A black cat crossed my path on a cool November night and I asked myself: if a black cat crosses your path and you don’t see it, is that still bad luck? I posed this question to my Facebook friends and received a couple of thoughtful replies, one of which was that I should consider it to be good luck. My initial response to that remark was “how cute”. I recalled the cat incident 48 hours later while waiting for my train on the elevated track platform, and had a revelation: My friend was right!
Why should a black cat crossing your path be bad luck? Is a black sheep bad? No, it isn’t! A black flag is a race car driver’s anathema because someone decreed this many years ago, not because of any physical characteristic. The black side moves second in chess because some king decided so thousands of years ago. (Or was it a queen?) Not all connotations of black are bad. Black-tie affairs are elegant occasions. Every businessperson desires to be in the black. And a blackjack is always a winning hand. Black-is-bad is a crock of doo-doo. Black coffee exemplifies this perfectly - some love it; some hate it. Same goes for black licorice.
I’m hoping that you will remember this gibberish the next time a black cat crosses your path – at least some of it, anyway! Don’t give that cat a second thought, unless it’s yours, or you’re really into cats. In either case, you’re on your own.
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