This Is Exactly Where Superstitions Come From, People!

I want to direct your attention today to the lower left block in this diagram -- the corner illustrating DESTRUCTIVE ORDER.  The pentagram with the lightning bolt through it reminds us that looking at an essentially Chaotic scene through the lens of Order, in the attempt to IMPOSE Order, can SCREW YOU UP WORSE THAN JUST STICKING WITH THE ORIGINAL CHAOS.


So here's how my life lesson went:  The other day I was heading back to the office from an appointment, driving an agency car.  When I was stopped at a really busy intersection, a lady in a van collided with me.  Lightly.  The back bumper of the car I was driving lost some paint.  Nobody was hurt.  No biggie. 


So, making light of the situation, I loaded this album into my CD player:

For grins, I played "Always Crashing In The Same Car" from that album, again and again, in the days following the collision.  I finally tired of the joke and changed over to a different disc before heading out today for another appointment.  I stopped at a really busy intersection, and the car behind me collided with me.  Lightly.  Not even the paint was scratched this time.  The other driver was stopping as well, probably quite safely, when yet another lady driving yet another van bumped into HER from behind.

I thought about people driving vans and asked myself, seriously, why they always want to drive so close behind you.  (That question has actually bothered me for years.)  I wondered why everyone these days feels compelled to talk on the phone while they drive.  The driver who hit me a few days ago was on the phone when she hit me, and the driver of today's van had her phone in her hand suspiciously fast, I thought, when she popped out to ask if she ought to call the cops.  I wondered what evil star was raising a ruckus in my horoscope today.  After getting my complaint number from a very nice state trooper, I found myself driving home by a route not typical for me. Normally I avoid it because of a particular left turn that can be quite hazardous.  I told myself it would take me past the post office, and in any case I can't let myself give in to fear by avoiding a scary intersection because I just got into a car crash.  That way lies madness.  But it hit me (pardon the expression) as I approached the intersection I normally avoid:  When I got into the collision last week, this is where I pulled in to wait for the police to come and take a report.  And I caught myself wondering whether I was asking for it by playing that particular David Bowie song. 

It was then I noticed how many superstitious seeds I was planting in my own mind.  You water that shit and it'll turn into a nightmare of kudzu, growing in excess of a foot a day and crawling with markedly peevish snakes.  And when I say kudzu, I mean some really ridiculous beliefs that have you seeing ominous Order in things that are really pretty random.

Remember, peeps, that sometimes an accident is just an accident.  Keep that thought in your back pocket for future use. 

The mind you save may be your own.