Don’t walk beneath that ladder, and do be careful with that mirror — you wouldn’t want to break it and find yourself dealing with 7 years of bad luck! This week, we’re all about superstitions and luck!
We begin the episode asking each other if we’re superstitious and what was the first superstition we remember hearing (it’s probably pretty common, and we bet your mother’s back was not broken by your actions on a sidewalk). Were we superstitious when we were younger? Find out! After that, we ask how our perceptions of things have changed over the years.
Then we get a little more specific: can superstition be a low-level mental illness, like a mild obsessive-compulsive disorder? Or is it just a thing people do? What influence do different cultures have on superstitions (we give examples we’ve seen). Then…we move on to luck!
Find out if we consider ourselves lucky people and if there are ways to avoid “bad luck.” Is bad luck just a person’s lot in life or can things be done to make our own luck?
We close with the silliest superstitions we’ve ever heard and answering this question: “Who’s the most superstitious person you know?”
So avoid the black cats, pick up a penny, and listen to this week’s show! (And let us know if you have any superstitions in the comments.)
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Some of my fondest memories are of sleeping in my grandparents’ basement. I was around ten (somehow I’m ten years old in all my childhood memories). At night, alone in the basement, I felt like I was a mile underground. The basement was cold and damp, and the antique bed was big and covered in heavy blankets. And there, in the middle of the top quilt, was what looked like the carapace of a HUGE spider. I questioned my mother about it, and she said to ignore it. So I focused on it all night, eventually falling asleep. In the morning, it was gone.
I once dreamed a monkey tried to bite me and made my folks call the zoo to see if a monkey had escaped. That’s not really related to your story, but the phantom spider made me think of it. 😉
Another childhood spiders-at-night story – I swear I remember, countless nights, watching tiny red spiders stream out of an electrical outlet in my bedroom. Trails of them crawling out. In the morning, they’d be gone, presumably back in the outlet. The next night, they’d stream out again. Not every night, but many nights. So bizarre, it made me question my sanity.
That just creeps me out. Like…worse than a guy with a hockey mask and ax creepy. Just that dreamlike state and silence and that. Yeah, that would creep me out big time…
This dream is why we’re called Men in Gorilla Suits! 😉
(Okay, not really…but monkeys have the honor of being some of the funniest creatures, but also…terrifying.)
It either crawled away on its own, or a monster ate it. Only two explanations!
I remember my mother telling me if I went outside with wet hair, I would get sick. It didn’t matter if we were in the middle of August on the Equator, I would get sick because I was outside and my hair was wet. And to this day I’m almost religious about drying my hair before I go anywhere.
Monica: First, thank you for the reply, and sorry it’s taken awhile for me to reply. October saw a sudden family emergency, and things are just now kind of returning to some semblance of normal.
I grew up in the Chicago area and used to charge out to meet the school bus in winter with wet hair. By the time I was half way up the block, my hair started freezing. I was not the only one to do this. We’d all stand in the cold, trying to slap each others’ heads, convinced that hair would crack off when frozen. We truly believed that, and yet…that was our goofy routine.
It’s funny how things from childhood can stick. I can totally see — even as an adult — fearing damp hair outside…even in August. I obviously was goofy and challenged things to the point I’m lucky to be alive, but I’m sure we all have those things we just do out of belief or even habit. I’ve known atheists who were raised Catholic who still cross themselves. Not that they believe it, but it’s just an ingrained reaction and a way to acknowledge they’re about to try something risky.