As I was driving home today I noticed a fairly large spider on my windshield and it made me smile. For some odd and bizarre reason I think seeing a spider is good luck and that got me wondering about the crazy superstitions we sometime have. I don't know why I believe spiders are good luck, but to me they just are. My mother has the strangest idea that if you clean after someone leaves to go on a trip, then that person will never return. So whenever I leave, I have to wait until she cleans the entire house so that she doesn't have to clean after. She has no explanation for this belief but it is so strong that she cannot get herself to change it, even though she is a very well educated doctor.
Superstition transcends all logic and rationality and it really makes me think about how rational we are. I know most of us like to believe that we are rational and that our thought process is logical, but we are not. We function mostly on instinct and things that we have learned as children. What are parents teach us become the norm and they become what's right. We don't think about the decisions we make everyday, because there are just so many of them. We don't question our beliefs because they have been so deeply rooted into our psyche that it doesn't even occur to us to question them.
What would happen if we did question them? How would we react if someone were to show us that what we believe is in, is utterly and completely wrong? Would we see or turn a blind eye?
3 comments:
I like to think I'd see. I've been pretty open-minded when it comes to realizing that which I believed in the past is incorrect, and not only false, but extremely illogical.
Check out this: http://youarenotsosmart.com/
It pretty much explains why you're wrong about everything you think. Not specifically you, mind, but you get the idea.
Superstition talk is going around lately. I just did a post about them.
Ok to your questions. This kinda already does happen. Like when you get older and find out that Santa Clause isn't real. Or when your perfect parents turn out to be not so perfect. Or when you realize your really strict father smokes pot. Things like that, I think really take people for a loop. It's like...have it always been this way and I've just been too blind to see it or is this a new development?
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