If you’re superstitious, raise your left hand, spin around counterclockwise three times, touch your nose with your right index finger and howl at the moon on Friday the 13th while trying to ignore the smell of your lucky socks you haven’t washed in seven months.

Now that you’ve made a complete fool of yourself, give up all that crap.

Superstitions have a weird way of controlling the way people think. These irrational beliefs take away reason and logic and turn intelligent people into a heartless mob looking for a scapegoat.

Did that sound like the way Cubs fans acted toward Steve Bartman? Because I was actually trying to describe the Salem witch trials.

Superstitions have a funny way of making people believe they are doomed to fail- it’s called a curse.

The curse is the most feared superstition. It is fueled by coincidences and traces its beginnings to the archives of history.

In the Cubs’ case, a fan tries to bring a billy goat to a game, the team says “you can’t bring a goat into Wrigley Field” and the next thing you know the Cubs are cursed forever.

It was just a silly Greek superstition at the time, but now its a full-blown curse. Unfortunate events like Mr. Bartman’s interference with the ball only add to the strength of the curse. Cubs opponents, like the St. Louis Post Dispatch, like to add to belief in the curse by printing the word “CURSED” in huge letters on the front page.

Speaking of curses on the front page of a publication, how about the Sports Illustrated cover curse?

The October 13, 2003 issue of Sports Illustrated features Cubs pitcher Kerry Wood and Red Sox pitcher Pedro Martinez. Is it a curse that caused the two stud pitchers to lose the decisive games of their respective league championship series or just coincidence? The highly superstitious will argue the date of the publication might strengthen the argument for the existence of a curse.

The Red Sox haven’t done a very good job of avoiding the label of being cursed. After winning the World Series in 1918, Red Sox owner Harry Frazee sold Babe Ruth’s contract to the Yankees and used the money to produce the play “No No Nanette.”

Any rational human being can see these things for what they are – coincidences.

Curses don’t exist except in the mind of the naive. Curses get their power from the same source of the gods in Greek mythology, the irrational fear of people.

A curse is the same thing as luck.

I remember watching a report on “20/20” or “Dateline” or some other news show examine luck.

They examined two women – one believing she had good luck and the other believing she had bad luck.

The two each chose from the same of pair unsolvable puzzles and each was told one was solvable and the other wasn’t. The woman with bad luck assumed she had chosen the unsolvable puzzle and gave up in under a minute. The woman with good luck thought she had the solvable one and tried for several minutes until she was told neither puzzle was solvable.

A curse is believing something bad will happen to prevent you from accomplishing your goal. Persistence and optimism is the key to success.

I used to believe I should stop watching Cubs games if they were doing badly while I was watching. After I realized I wasn’t watching too many Cubs games I decided to give that superstition up.

There is no point in being a fan if you’re not going to watch the game.

Forget the curses, forget the superstitions and just enjoy the game, folks.