Dissociated Thoughts

Day 3195 FRIDAY 13, August 2021

Written for "Blogging Circle of Friends Prompt Forum"  8/13/21
Prompt: Since it's Friday the 13th... what's your favorite Friday the 13th movie? Do you ever binge watch them on Friday the 13th or wait until Halloween rolls around? - Or if you're not a movie buff discuss superstitions.


It's Friday the 13th!

I never really saw the appeal of the Friday 13th movie franchise. I like scary movies, I just never found them that scary. Or maybe they just weren't my type of scary. However, as this is the case, I will write my blog today based on the second portion of the prompt and discuss superstitions...

First, let's take a look at superstition defined.
Merriam-Webster defines superstition as:
1. a: a belief or practice resulting from ignorance, fear of the unknown, trust in magic or chance, or a false conception of causation
b: an irrational abject attitude of mind toward the supernatural, nature, or God resulting from superstition
2. a notion maintained despite evidence to the contrary

And The Wikipedia goes into a little more detail with:
A superstition is a belief or practice typically resulting from ignorance, a misunderstanding of science or causality, a belief in fate or magic, perceived supernatural influence, or fear of that which is unknown. It is commonly applied to beliefs and practices surrounding luck, prophecy, and certain spiritual beings, particularly the belief that future events can be foretold by specific unrelated prior events.

Take whichever one better suits your current mental definition. I'm not sure either one really fits mine, as I by nature am superstitious.

Superstitions can take many forms. There are those which purport to cause bad luck: black cats crossing your path, walking under ladders, stepping on cracks, the dreaded Friday 13th (which somehow is always GOOD luck for me). But there are also those which are believed to bring good luck: kissing the Blarney Stone, lucky charms, and that sort of thing.

I'm from Texas. In the south, we have an annual superstition that eating black-eyed peas on New Year's Day will bring luck to your upcoming year. I do it every year and have since I was little. But there is a basis for this superstition. At one point in history, toward the end of the Civil War, black-eyed peas helped those living in the south to live after the Union soldiers raided the food stores of the southerners. Black-eyed peas grow naturally in many places and the Union soldiers did not think that people could/would eat what they considered not even fit for fodder. But those peas kept the people alive.

While that particular superstition has roots to help substantiate it, many others are baffling - but if you believe they still seem hold some merit. When I was little, my mom was adamant that I move spots whenever she had to sweep in the area near me. This is because "sweeping under a person will bring him bad luck" and if that person is a young woman, "sweeping under her feet will cause her to be unable to bear children." Crazy as that sounds, many people believe in such things. I've never personally found black cats, ladders, or Fri 13 to be unlucky. They've always been lucky for me. But, I never step on cracks. I think that's just part of my OCD kicking in though, just like I have to do many things in sets of three. Some people might be of the opinion that the wearing of crosses is superstitious, believing in something that is unseen. But in the end, no matter what we believe, we have to believe in something - even if all you believe in is yourself or what you can use your senses to perceive. Even then, some people have extra-sensory abilities, if you believe in such things - or are those just superstition as well? I'll let you all make those decisions for yourselves.

Superstitions have been around forever. They're in every country and every culture around the world. Who's to say if any of them have more merit than just being mere superstition. Perhaps they are backed by real life experiences or perhaps they were all just invented to make humans feel better about the things they didn't know... A way of explaining the strange coincidences they couldn't otherwise explain. I do know that superstitions have their power for those who believe and have been ingrained in us through the generations. And good or bad, they'll be around until we go extinct.

LeJenD'Poet - Just ME