Superstition

We share our home with two black cats who frequently cross our paths. I have no qualms about walking under ladders or staying on the thirteenth floor of a hotel. Nor do I dread Friday the Thirteenth; a Friday of any date is my favorite day of the week.

I am a believer in reason, logic and the scientific method. Superstition is scary stuff. Down through the ages it has been used to spawn death, cruelty and injustice. Witches were burned at the stake, people with deformities were made outcasts and entire groups of people shunned.

Animals fared no better. Bats and snakes were killed as evil while other creatures were sacrificed to various gods.

Amazingly, superstition still thrives in the 21st century. In our modern times, it frequently comes disguised as tradition and involves invocations to luck. I consider myself rational, but will happily tug on a wishbone hoping for the longer piece. Finding a four leaf clover or a lucky penny brings a small surge of joy as well as seeing the first star of night. I will grab for a wishing seed or empty my coin purse to throw coins in a fountain.

I would love to live in a world free from the suffocating grip of superstitions. Would it be paradoxical to wish for a new age of reason while blowing out the candles on a birthday cake?

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3 thoughts on “Superstition”

  1. Superstition is a manifestation of a set of rules that showed people how to do things correctly that no longer need to be done. It’s a form of history repeating itself for no particular reason . . . like us saying things like “dial the phone,” “books on tape,” and “save it to disk.”

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