Are you superstitious? If you are how superstitious are you? Good? Bad? Indifferent?

[srmom]

I have to admit that I am EXTREMELY superstitious. When my kids are/were playing sports, I have certain rituals, like putting my purse in the same place on the bleachers, sitting in certain areas, wearing certain outfits, etc.

I KNOW it's crazy, but it is somehow reassuring to me, as I get extremely nervous before their games. I guess it makes me feel like I have some control over the outcome (when I know that rationally, I don't!!!).

Funny thing though, my kids always ask before they leave if I've got the right stuff on

I'm creating "superstition monsters"

[AGDee]

More superstitions that have some logical explanation:

If you kill a spider in the house, it will rain. Well, when do spiders come in the house? When it gets cloudy before it rains.. they are coming in to get out of the weather that's coming, you kill them and voila.. if you a kill a spider in the house, it will rain!

If a bird comes into the house, someone in the house will die. Birds commonly carry diseases, even more so in the "olden" days. My ex-husband got encephalitis from a dead bird when he was 5. So yes, before we had antibiotics, you could get sick from a bird and someone would die.

Just a couple that I could think of off hand that actually make a little sense.

[cheerfulgreek]

I've never heard of passing the salt as a superstition. What if someone across the table wants the salt. Is he/she supposed to get it themselves? It wouldn't suprise me if it is superstitious though.

I just think the two issues of humanity's apparent irrationality and superstitions only appear in my mind as problematic because I guess I'm viewing superstition as traditionally opposed to rationality. I don't mean that it's rational to believe in auras or to carry a certain object or to wear certain clothing, but I just think the relationship between reason and superstition is more complex than mere opposition. I do think we're all superstitious to an extent, but at the same time I think superstitious beliefs are simply the very opposite of reason. I myself try to reject superstitious beliefs when they become exposed, because to me it becomes somewhat a pattern of irrationality.