When you believe in things that you don't understand ...
Growing up I wasn't subjected to too many superstitions. Friday the 13th was just another day on the calendar. I walked under ladders, stepped on cracks, broke mirrors, etc. without a care in the world or knowledge of their supposed repercussions.
In fact I'm often shocked by the ridiculous things that people believe that I was only exposed to via television.
For instance, "The Five Second Rule". That food would be safe from contamination for five seconds after touching the floor is totally beyond my comprehension. Being of a more scientific mindset, I know how contamination works. However, growing up very poor, we never wasted anything unless it had to be. Therefore, if something fell on the ground it was washed and inspected to see if it could be salvaged. If so, it was then served. While I know there are some of you out there recoiling in horror at this disclosure, to me it was business as usual.
I'm also very amused by the still persistent myth that eating Pop Rocks & drinking soda will kill you or make your stomach blow up. Being as I did this numerous times as a kid years prior to hearing of the "dangers" of this practice I know for a fact that it's total nonsense.
So too, is the idea that gum stays in your gut for years or that raw cookie dough will kill you or bake in your stomach acid and cause you to blow up and die. That last one was actually told to be in total reverence by the college educated child of an RN and even though I showed her the science proving it was impossible she still believes it to this day. Now I will concede that raw eggs may carry salmonella and that consuming them in uncooked form (cookie dough) can make you very sick or kill you should you have a compromised immune system, the dough itself won't hurt you and you can use egg substitutes to correct this possibility.
In fact, many people find some religious beliefs/customs to be mere superstitions and unbelievable ridiculous to people outside the sect. I know that my college buds & I were horrified when we found out that people in other places took family photos at funerals including the deceased & their open casket.
It's always interesting to discover the little idiosyncrasies that we all have and especially to discover the origins of these beliefs. I feel it's a nice peek inside someone's psyche.
Now don't let all this lead you to believe that I was brought up without any family superstitions of my own. I was brought up with was that you should make an "X" in front of you if a black cat crosses your path to prevent bad luck. But I only hunted for four-leafed clovers as a game. I had a rabbit's foot key chain for a while just because it was soft. Wishing on falling stars, hay*, or when you blew out the birthday candles was pretty pointless but I played along because others seemed to like the idea.
So you see, we all have strange rites/beliefs/traditions ingrained in us from childhood. We should try to use them to find common ground between us rather than ridicule those who believe differently.
I hope you enjoyed this, my weekly therealljidol entry on the topic, step on a crack. I look forward to this week's comments which I imagine will be filled with other examples of familial superstitions.
TTFN!
* For those of you who don't know what I meant by wishing on "hay", whenever we passed a truckload of hay in the car (or just passes a mound of hay anywhere), my mom would always say, "Hay, Hay, Make a wish and look away"
In fact I'm often shocked by the ridiculous things that people believe that I was only exposed to via television.
For instance, "The Five Second Rule". That food would be safe from contamination for five seconds after touching the floor is totally beyond my comprehension. Being of a more scientific mindset, I know how contamination works. However, growing up very poor, we never wasted anything unless it had to be. Therefore, if something fell on the ground it was washed and inspected to see if it could be salvaged. If so, it was then served. While I know there are some of you out there recoiling in horror at this disclosure, to me it was business as usual.
I'm also very amused by the still persistent myth that eating Pop Rocks & drinking soda will kill you or make your stomach blow up. Being as I did this numerous times as a kid years prior to hearing of the "dangers" of this practice I know for a fact that it's total nonsense.
So too, is the idea that gum stays in your gut for years or that raw cookie dough will kill you or bake in your stomach acid and cause you to blow up and die. That last one was actually told to be in total reverence by the college educated child of an RN and even though I showed her the science proving it was impossible she still believes it to this day. Now I will concede that raw eggs may carry salmonella and that consuming them in uncooked form (cookie dough) can make you very sick or kill you should you have a compromised immune system, the dough itself won't hurt you and you can use egg substitutes to correct this possibility.
In fact, many people find some religious beliefs/customs to be mere superstitions and unbelievable ridiculous to people outside the sect. I know that my college buds & I were horrified when we found out that people in other places took family photos at funerals including the deceased & their open casket.
It's always interesting to discover the little idiosyncrasies that we all have and especially to discover the origins of these beliefs. I feel it's a nice peek inside someone's psyche.
Now don't let all this lead you to believe that I was brought up without any family superstitions of my own. I was brought up with was that you should make an "X" in front of you if a black cat crosses your path to prevent bad luck. But I only hunted for four-leafed clovers as a game. I had a rabbit's foot key chain for a while just because it was soft. Wishing on falling stars, hay*, or when you blew out the birthday candles was pretty pointless but I played along because others seemed to like the idea.
So you see, we all have strange rites/beliefs/traditions ingrained in us from childhood. We should try to use them to find common ground between us rather than ridicule those who believe differently.
I hope you enjoyed this, my weekly therealljidol entry on the topic, step on a crack. I look forward to this week's comments which I imagine will be filled with other examples of familial superstitions.
TTFN!
* For those of you who don't know what I meant by wishing on "hay", whenever we passed a truckload of hay in the car (or just passes a mound of hay anywhere), my mom would always say, "Hay, Hay, Make a wish and look away"