Superstitious? Nope I believe we make our own luck

Events where I was told off for not being sympathetic to superstitious people today got me thinking. What is the point of superstition nowadays?

Don’t get me wrong, I understand where it came from. The idea that a curse or bad luck could be gained from behaving a certain way makes total sense in terms of the medieval world. There was a lack of understanding of why certain events happened the way they did. There was a lack of knowledge about the natural world. Of course you could be cursed by that weird woman who lived on her own down the street. Of course you could get bad luck from doing something like break a mirror. If you don’t understand why something happens you can easily come up with stories about it.

Also superstition can give you an excuse. If something goes wrong you can say that it is down to the fact that you broke that mirror last week or you put those new shoes on the table. It couldn’t possibly be down to your own error or just some genuinely unfortunate turn of events.

When we talk about luck I am very sceptical. I believe that we make our own luck. Yes there are some things we cannot control such as our health or the weather, but for the most part we can be masters of our own destiny. It is up to us to work hard or try at something and make it work for us. We should never expect a free ride or for everything to go our way, life just doesn’t work like that.

I am not talking about religion here. I am not going that deep. I am only talking about superstition. Some of it is common sense anyway. There is a superstition that if you walk under a ladder you will get bad luck. Well, yes. It is just stupid to do that as you might knock the ladder over and hurt yourself or someone else, or you might have something fall on you. Ladders are dangerous things generally.

So what is the point of superstition nowadays? As far as I can see it is just a way of passing on responsibility. There is no need for it in today’s world. Here is some free advice from me to you: just stop being an idiot and bad things won’t happen! Simple!