by Judith Ashley
Sarah and I sat down in August and brainstormed ideas for
our 2014 monthly Genre-ista topics or prompts as well as ideas for our Saturday
Highlight Contributors. I also have a paper monthly calendar I write these ideas
on once we finalize them. I like the idea of picking something up and in mere
seconds being able to find the information – so much easier and faster for me than
scrolling around on my phone or clicking around on the computer.
What does this have to do with the topic of
Superstitions? Three things…
One: I
didn’t look at my calendar much less the list in the Files section of the
Romancing The Genres yahoo group so I wrote a whole blog post on “Near Death
Experiences” – and I published it. If I hadn’t looked at my calendar and
noticed Robin Weaver’s title, you may have read that instead of this.
Two: My excuse is we came up with this topic last year. How was I supposed to remember?
Three: At
some point in the annals of time, something happened that gave rise to what
seems to be superstitious to us today (or in the more recent past). If you read yesterday's post by
Bronwen Evans on wedding superstitions you can see the
reasoning behind those traditions/superstitions.
Do I
pay close attention to the cracks in the sidewalk? Sometimes – often the crack signals unevenness
in the pavement. It is easy enough to stub your toe on one of them and fall.
Do I
pay attention to ladders and walk around them? Yes – because ladders are a sign that
something is going on over my head. I’m rather protective of that part of my
body. I don’t need hammers, buckets, bricks, etc. falling on me.
One thing I do pay attention to is that particular feeling
I get that tells me something isn’t quite right. In my younger more daring days
I sometimes ignored it or thought I was capable of dealing with the situation.
Sometimes that was true and I did bluff my way through – other times it wasn’t
and I paid a physical price.
When you think of superstitions, can you figure out why
they began? I’m interested to hear your thoughts.
© 2013 Judith Ashley
www.FreeReadsFromTheGenre-istas.blogspot.com
2 comments:
Superstitions are fun. You can pretend to believe them or you can be brave and ignore them. As a kid if my friends were scared, I'd say they didn't scare me. As an adult depending on how life is going at the time, I heed or ignore them.
Interesting post! Yes, I believe in certain superstitions. I don't believe black cats are a sign of bad luck or death. I love black cats. My last four cats have been black. Do I walk under ladders? No I don't, for the reasons Judith mentioned and "bad luck". I looked up this superstition: a ladder has three points and so early Christians believed anything with three points represented the Holy Trinity. therefore walking under the ladder, expresses disbelief in the trinity and that person is in league with Satan. You could be labeled a witch, for walking under a ladder in earlier times. I had no idea!!!!
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