Superstition: aka Whatever Works
"At the end of the day, in this strange journey called life, we have to give ourselves every advantage we can, and if that involves a little superstition, a little good luck charm, then so be it.”
Diving Casa Cenote.
I have a confession to make.
I’m superstitious.
I know, I’m not supposed to be…
But here’s the thing.
To survive in this world, or thrive in this world, we have to have something to believe in.
That something might be God, or Heaven; a universal higher power, or something entirely different.
But that’s not what I’m talking about here.
I’m talking about the little things, the everyday things; the things perhaps nobody else knows about.
OK, I’ll go first.
When I hang a towel on the rack, the tag has to be at the back where you can’t see it.
When I’m on an airplane, I always line up the catch that holds the tray table in so that it’s perfectly vertical.
I have to do it.
It’s my way of having some kind of control over a situation that’s totally out of my control.
But here’s where it goes next level.
I’ve been wearing this pendant around my neck since 1992.
It’s called an Nyami Nyami, a symbol of a river serpent said to live in the Zambezi River between Zimbabwe and Zambia, and the story goes that wearing this symbol will protect the wearer whilst in the water.
Every now and then, the necklace on this pendant has broken, and a year ago it had broken just prior to a diving trip to the Cayman Islands.
I searched high and low for a replacement necklace (I prefer black rubber as it tends to last longer); to no avail.
When the time came to roll backwards out of the boat and proceed down to a depth of over 100ft, I knew I was rolling the dice by not having it on me.
Somehow, I survived that week of diving, but as a recent trip to dive the cenotes of Mexico drew closer, I knew I had to get it fixed.
There was just no way I could dive into a cave without that thing around my neck.
Now, you could say this is just a stupid superstition, and perhaps it is.
But what it also is, is having something to believe in.
I have to have this for the universe to be in order.
What we’re talking about really is mindset.
Some of the fear associated with being underwater simply goes away due to the act of wearing this pendant.
At the end of the day, in this strange journey called life, we have to give ourselves every advantage we can, and if that involves a little superstition, a little good luck charm, then so be it.
We do whatever works, for us.
How about you?
What superstitions do you have that work for you?
Ps
So, “Did it work, wearing the pendant in the cenotes?” I hear you ask?
Check it out: