The Logic of Superstition Part I - The Bad Luck

"... Pythagoras was right: To find truths, we must invert"

- You Have More Than You Think by the Motley Fool

Regardless of the origins of many superstitions, many have made their way into our everyday culture and we take them at face value.  A black cat crosses your path is bad luck, walking under a ladder is bad luck, breaking a mirror is 7 years bad luck.  Then there are the good luck superstitions: Rain on your wedding day is good luck, knocking on wood to preserve you current luck, getting pooped on by a seagull is good luck. Don’t get me wrong, I’m a believer in rituals and superstitions – I wouldn’t be running my hands up and down either side of the slot machines after each spin hoping for the big payoff if I didn’t. But as they prove to not to improve my luck I begin to start mulling over the intensity of luck based on characteristics of the situation or even the plausibility of the inverse.  I have picked up a heads up penny many times only to have a bad day to follow – so I have to wonder.

The Black Cat Superstition

I’ve heard this one a lot, as you no doubt have.  So, is it good luck if a white cat crosses your path? If a black one crosses your path and its bad luck, certainly the opposite must be true.  What about a beige one, could it mean ordinary luck?  What about the size of the cat? Would degree of bad luck depend upon the size of the cat?  I would think so. If a panther crosses your path, I’d imagine you’re about to have a really bad day.

I also wonder why it’s isolated to just the cat - since the second layer to the superstition is the color.  So, if one’s path is crossed by a Black Labrador, would that be good luck? Or would it mean that it’s even worse luck than a small cat.  What about a black bear?  Like the panther, I would think that if a black bear crosses your path, the day is about to get a whole lot worse.

Lastly, what about the path - where does it end? Does one’s luck change the closer the animal is? If you’re traveling down the highway and a black cat that is not in your sight, crosses your path that would still constitute bad luck.  But you were unaware.

I suppose the next time I have a bad day, I’ll have to attribute it to a black cat a mile down the road.

Walking Under a Ladder.

This one I had a hard time with, but I still avoid walking under them so I don’t tempt the fates.  Without researching this, I suppose I could see the logic behind it.  Pre-hardhats or even pre-toolbelts, if you walked under a ladder you probably and regularly got conked on the head by some clumsy carpenter.  If walking under the ladder is bad luck, then climbing over one must be good luck.  I mean … the clumsy carpenter sure had better luck than the poor victim below.

Breaking a mirror - 7 years bad luck

When I was young, I accidentally broke my cousin’s make-up mirror.  I knew that meant 7 years bad luck.  That must have been the case because over the course of the following seven years, I did not win the lottery, marry a Victoria Secret's model, or even become super popular in high school. Now that I think of it, I suppose the bad luck fallout of that mirror lasted 12 years. Regardless, I started thinking that if I glued it back together, would that improve my luck?  I don’t mean that fractured, super glued, “back together” – I mean if I were a glass expert and was able to restore it to its original luster.

Furthermore, what about someone that works in mirror factory?  Imagine someone who builds mirrors for a living.  They make mirrors day in and day out; careful to not break them because it would hurt their profit margins (I suppose that alone would be bad luck).  So, if that person has never broken a mirror but constructs them they must have good luck.  That seems to be the case because as an entrepreneur they started up and are running a mirror manufacturing company.

There's still more to wonder about.

Until Next Time ...