On Pennies
By

    Julie Beck / North by Northwestern

    “Find a penny, pick it up, all day long you’ll have good luck” — the first time I heard this was in a movie theater watching Grease, which had been brought back to the screen for the holidays.

    And then whats-her-face drops the penny and Kenickie gets banged in the head by a car door. Even though the T-Birds win the race, for a long time I thought that pennies were worthless. Paradoxically, ascribing power to a piece of copper-coated zinc works the same way in my mind as when something bad happens to you and people say: Oh, it’s all part of a larger plan. (Really? You’re going to write it off like that?)

    …Really? You’re going to put your faith in that penny?

    * * * * *

    I’m sure this has been pointed out many times, so let me just say: “In God We Trust” on a piece of money seems pretty ironic. Puts a whole new spin on the render-unto-Caesar-what-is-Caesar’s idea.

    If I stopped to think “In God We Trust” every time I was about to spend money, I might never buy anything I didn’t truly need again. Or I might buy only the things I didn’t need.

    * * * * *

    Some people want to get rid of “In God We Trust” being printed on U.S. currency.
    Some people simply want to get rid of the penny.
    Some people do not – some charities depend solely on donations of pennies.

    * * * * *

    A friend of mine firmly believed in the powers of a lucky penny. She would stop in the middle of a busy street or submerge herself into a river of moving people to pick one up off the sidewalk.

    But only if it was heads up. If it was tails, she backed away as if a black cat had crossed her path. Tails was the most powerful luck turned on its head.

    * * * * *

    We separate a penny from its utility because its utility is very small. A penny is 1% of a dollar, which in the current economy seems to be a steadily dwindling value. So we ascribe other meanings to it: one penny = one wish

    But so does a nickel, a dime, or a quarter.

    It is difficult to see that each coin sitting at the bottom of a fountain holds the place of one wish.

    And sometimes we are forced to acknowledge the utility of pennies, as when the lady with the pole begins to fish around in the bottom of the fountain, collecting coins and leaving none.

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