Friday the 13th, and Other Scary Thoughts...

Tomorrow is Friday the 13th.

For some people that brings to mind a scary movie, but it also brings to mind a "scary and unfortunate day," regardless of the 1980 horror film.

Superstitions are funny things. Sure, this particular one has its roots in a distant past... Judas was the 13th guest at The Last Supper, and yadda, yadda. Hey, even in my own ancestors' Norse mythology, 13 is associated with Loki, the trickster who's always causing chaos and mayhem. Many tall buildings do not have a 13th floor...

Oddly enough, 13 was my mother's favorite number. Whatever faults she may have had, she was often a "contrarian" who firmly stood by her beliefs, and typically wasn't inclined to follow the crowd.

I remember her telling me that all the nonsense surrounding thirteen as "unlucky" was nonsense, and to the degree that people did experience bad luck connected to the number thirteen, it was invariably the result of "self-fulfilling prophecies" rather than the actual number.

I guess I am more like her than not... and we also have a black cat, and he's pretty damn lucky!

One of the things that sometimes scares me about the human experience is the "negativity bias" so many people carry around.

What I mean by that is that we tend to jump to conclusions that something we don't understand is going to be bad, rather than good.

Consider the aliens coming by in their flying saucers... why are they always here to "conquer" us and even "destroy" us? Why couldn't they just as well be curious explorers? Cosmic anthropologists, of sorts?

Like Begets Like...?

Although I have spent a substantial part of my life around the "Woo-woo crowd," I tend to be a fairly practical individual.

That includes a firm belief that "like begets like." There's nothing "woo" about it... we simply have an increased chance of encountering what our attention is focused on.

Ever experienced that thing with cars?

You're in the market for a new car, and you finally determine that you're going to buy a yellow Honda. Suddenly, it seems like there are yellow Honda's everywhere! Of course, there aren't any more than there ever was... but your locus of attention has shifted to yellow Honda's... even though before you started car shopping, all you noticed was how many Subarus were on the road...

Getting back to our alien friends from before... when the alien puts its hand in it's pocket (taking some anthropomorphic liberties, here!) why do you think it's reaching for a weapon rather than a gift?

I'm not afraid of very many things in this life... but that kind of mindset is scary, to me. Not everything needs to be fought against...

And with that, I'm going to end and wish everyone a very happy Friday the 13th! Images on @peakd seem to be acting up... so we'll see if this ends up being a bunch of broken image links... apologies in advance, if it IS.

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Created at 2023-01-12 23:42 PDT
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