The shape of your little finger indicates…
I’ve been doing some translation recently, some of which included translating an app that does palmistry (palm reading) for the iPhone from English into Swedish. It was a good assignment, good pay, good pace – an all round decent experience as far as work goes. However, as I translated, proofread and made sure everything was looking presentable, I got more and more upset by the actual content of the text I was working on, rather than the grammar, which is usually the case. That said though, I did my best with grammar, spelling and syntax, and hopefully the app will be great – language wise.
Those of you that know me, know that I’m not very superstitious – at all. I’ve never really been, and I’ve considered myself an atheist for a long time now. I’m a strong believer in science, demonstrable results, and you know, things that can be proven with scientific means, like gravity or cell division. “Because it’s written in the stars”, is not a good enough answer. Who wrote it? For whom? Why? What the hell does giant balls of smouldering gas and minerals several thousands of light years away have to do with the state of my relationship? And how does the shape of the second bone in my thumb affect my outlook on life, if I may ask? How can it?
I would like to see an empirical study proving that it might, but then how would such a study be performed? Surely there are as many outlooks as there are thumbs? And if you really want to know what kind of person you are, why don’t you go to a psychologist, someone that can perform scientifically viable interviews and tests to determine your personality type? There are even tons of free ones you can do online. Or, here’s a shocker, why don’t you look back on your life and remember how you’ve acted previously – that will probably tell you a great deal. You don’t need some bint in a scarf to look at your fingertips to tell that you’re bad with money, just look at your bank account!
What saddens me the most though, it that there’s so many people that buy in to this crap. Vulnerable people that are looking for affirmation or guidance, blindly following advice that would be applicable to any of us purely because of how vaguely its worded. “You might go on a journey in the near future”. Might? Where? To the shops, to Spain, or maybe it’s a journey of self discovery? Or to Nigeria to collect a great treasure left to me by a distant relative in the Nigerian royal family? And you say all they need is my bank details? I’ll be right there!
And I suppose that’s what pushes my buttons – the amount of money made in this industry, simply because the customer wants to, or really does believe that someone other than themselves, someone invisible, is governing their lives. I don’t believe for a minute that it’s about anything but the money.
It always is, isn’t it?
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