Don’t ever call me close minded, even though I often am.
I was on a business trip in Atlanta yesterday and we had two hours to waste before heading for the Atlanta airport. My coworker and I decided to explore downtown Atlanta on foot. Several local people suggested that we visited “The Underground,” an entertainment and tourist area. It was at “The Underground” that I met Sherry, a tarot card reader.  About 50 years of age, Sherry sat peacefully by a small table, but it was her red green and yellow hair that I first noticed. Her simple sign indicated that she was willing to give short tarot card readings for $10.
I took the empty chair in front of Sherry and she wasted no time telling me about myself. She consulted both her horoscope books and tarot cards before confidently announcing “You are excellent at arguing, you like to make arguments and you would make a good lawyer.” She never varied on this point. In fact, she went further. She told me that my North Mode was in Sagittarius, which suggests that I would be “good at law and government.”
Her announcement regarding my career was somewhat disarming since I am a lawyer and I’ve been a lawyer for more than 25 years. It was also surprising to hear Sherry make this announcement about my career so confidently because I was not wearing a suit or tie and because most people who are just getting to know me are rather surprised to hear that I am a lawyer (I’m not sure what that means).
If Sherry had stopped with her announcement that I was a lawyer, I would’ve really been impressed. But then she started throwing out lots of broad and vague suggestions. For instance, she claimed that I was moody (“you’ve been through some stuff”). She told me that I was “stubborn” (I refused, simply refused, to go along with this characterization). She told me that I was “having a hard time in my marriage” (this will seem possible for everyone except for those people who have absolutely perfect marriages). She told me that “security is very important to you.” She told me that I was sometimes sad, possibly depressed (well, it is true that I’m not always perfectly happy).
She told me that my wife and I were going to have another child (which was interesting, given that I had a vasectomy). She saw the look on my face, then asked if that was possible. “Not really,” I said. She looked straight at me as asked, “Have you been fixed?” Surprised at her directness, I nodded.
Sherry then told me that last December I witnessed a change in my life, “a change for the better” (perhaps she was talking about Santa Claus visiting the house). Sherry told me that I was “creative” (would anyone ever be offended at this, I wondered?). After pulling out some more tarot cards with baby images, Sherry asked if I had children, and I told her yes. She then proudly announced that I have a daughter who is “pregnant.” Perhaps this should have concerned me, but it didn’t, since my daughters are seven and nine years of age.
Sherry apparently makes a decent living doing her routine. She told us that she can make $500 each weekend day at the big mall, reading tarot cards.
My reading was really a disappointment, given the terrific start to this tarot card reading. I ended up getting nothing life-changing. It was especially a disappointment because Sherry forgot to tell me that my flight back to St. Louis was about to be canceled due to an ice storm.
She said that you would be a good lawyer. Implication: You aren't.
btw: Have you read my take on coworkers?
Dan: I get it. Or maybe she was a former client just giving her opinion. Maybe the tarot session hadn't yet begun.
On the "coworker" link, arrghhh.
Actually, what she was doing was reading your body language. Those who are self confident and at ease around people are good at a number of professioins, with lawyer being at the top of the heap. There are maybe a half dozen desirable professions, and this initial assesment causes the "mark" to relax a bit. Then she started probing with and applying you physical responses to her answers based on certain assumptions.
These assumptions are based on your apparent age and the answers to simple questions.
It is a bit of applied Jungian psychology, for the masses. The more someone believes, the more likely they are to volunteer little bits of info that can be used to make them believe. The more experience the psychic has, the better thay are a fooling people.
I also was surprised to hear that you are a lawyer… 😛
She knew you were a lawyer because she had just seen you lose a dollar in a vending machine and you were screaming, "The Coke machine is out of order! The candy machine is out of order! The whole row of vending machines are out of order!!!"
A psychic should also read books by Paul Ekman, a specialist in reading subtle facial clues. He's required reading for FBI and CIA agents.
I know that it's going to be hard to convince y'all that I didn look like a lawyer (neither did my co-worker) (that "co-worker" reference was for Dan). I wasn't wearing a button down shirt. No tie. I was wearing jogging shoes. She got lucky with the lawyer thing.
Here's the bottom line. This tarot reader is sometimes extremely accurrate and sometimes extremely wrong. Therefore, sit down and pay your money and then either follow her advice or not.
Caveat emptor! You lawyer, you! At least we didn't get another shot of anti-theist invective; Spare us, oh Lord!
Tim: I'm not "anti-theist." I'm not even anti-fundamentalist. I'm anti-fundamentalism and I have strong sympathy for the principles espoused by "brights." See http://www.the-brights.net/
As far as the "lawyer" tag, there's a saying that it takes one to know one . . .
I know two other male lawyers, one I met online and the other is one of my closest friends. They both seem to like arguing a lot, but think that it's only me who argues so much. Compared with these two Erich seems very mild and tame. 😀
I don’t go to her I always go to Candice. The older white women with deep indentations under her eyes.