Express Yourself--Good Turn Coins and Lucky Pens

The Express Yourself Meme for this week asks "Do you have a lucky charm or lucky ritual?" I have one lucky charm I carry, one ritual that I practice almost daily, though I don't know that I would say it is for luck, exactly.

Good turn coins are traditional among many involved in Scouting.  The idea is that you place it in your pocket in the morning and then, when you have done the daily good turn (or good deed) expected of Scouts, it is moved to another pocket.  Its a good way to remind oneself not only of the daily service obligation, but also that one is a Scout, and expected to conduct oneself in a certain way. 

I own several good turn coins, but this one is my favorite.  It was given to me by a fellow member of the Antelope Patrol after our Wood Badge Training.  Wood Badge is highly intensive adult leadership training that takes place over a week or several weekends.  The trainees are divided into patrols just like Boy Scouts, and complete a project that is presented to other scouters. Then  commit to 5 other projects that they on their own involved  themselves in over the next 18 months. Only then are they entitled to wear the sash, slide and beads of a Wood Badger.

So of my fellow antelopes gifted me with this coin,  It has the Wood Badge components listed on one side, and our patrol animal on the other.  I  also like it because it pentagonal, so i cant mistake it for a regular coin in my pocket and put it in the bus changer, like I did once with a St Christopher medal. 

I seldom leave the house with out this either in my pocket or in my purse. It is a reminder of the course, my patrol, the friend who gifted it, and my commitment as a Scouter

 

I have had one object that was lucky for a long time, although I no longer have it.  It was a fine point G2 pen, much like the one below.  And it does have a story.

 

A few years back, I was having a lot of computer problems, and a friend gifted me with a laptop she was no longer using.  In the laptop bag was a G2 pen.  At first I simply carried it as a reminder of my friend's kindness to me, but as I used it I discovered I really liked the pen.

As a writer I prefer paper to keyboard.  Most everything I post, including this, begins in a notebook.  But I my writing hand also cramps unless I have just the right pen.  This was just the right pen.

I began to use it for all my writing.  I carried it everywhere. When the ink ran out I bought a refill, then another.  It travelled to a Boy Scout Jamboree, and on a trip to New York to meet up with it original owner.  I realized at some point that I, who lose pens left and right, had carried this one for more than a year without losing it. 

I did finally lose it of course, at one of the Boy's baseball games his sophomore year.  The team was 0 for the season, so the needed the luck more than I perhaps. A ritual sacrifice to the baseball gods perhaps.

But G-2's are still my favorite pens.  I wrote the first draft of this with my newest lucky pen.  I brought it last October during breast cancer awareness month. It is pink.  Very Pink.  The Girl disdains pink these days, the Boy wouldn't dream of being seen with a pink pen.  Therefore neither has borrowed the pen, and it is still in my possession 5 months after I bought it.

And if that's not lucky I don't know what is.




This Post is part of  Express Yourself Meme. To
see what other bloggers are saying on this same topic please click on the link