I’m not Superstitious, I’m Quasistitious

I’m not what you would consider a superstitious person. Sure, I avoid walking under ladders, try not break any mirrors or open umbrellas inside of the house, but these are safety driven rather than superstition motivated. I’m not a friggatriskaideka or paraskevidekatriaphobe (and this is probably the only time I will ever use those words) nor do believe in rabbit’s feet or knocking on wood.

I think I’m somewhat superstitious in certain situations. I would say I’m Quasi-Superstitious or Quasistitious. Why not Semi-Superstitious, Demi-Superstitious or even Hemi-Superstitious?

I looked up Semi, Demi, Hemi, and Quasi is the prefix that works best. Although they all denote half, Semi is almost always used as a quantity qualifier. Its sibling Hemi is used mostly as a technical nomenclature in fields like chemistry, biology, and anatomy. Their kissing cousin Demi is more ceremonial and often implies “lesser.” A demigod, after all, is not quite the real thing.

Quasi is more appropriate because it means seemingly apparent but not really.  Like kinda pregnant.

Getting back to my Quasistitious-ness….The belief that bad luck comes in threes is a good example of how I sometimes partake of the superstition kool-aid.  A couple of things go wrong, and I start to look for the next bit of bad luck.

Recently, my wife sprained her ankle and we also had a tire blow out while driving to Michigan. My cell phone also mysteriously stopped connecting to our cellular network (looking at you T-Mobile) and we are hoping that those are The Three.

But if you think about it, you can always find three things that are both bad luck and in close proximity.  So maybe the Power of Three is really just good old-fashioned confirmation bias.  

Maybe the best explanation for my Quasistitious comes from a show that jumped the shark a long time ago:

“Superstition lies in the space between what we can control and what we can’t. Find a penny pick it up, and all day long you will have good luck. No one wants to pass up a chance for good luck, but does saying it 33 times really help? I mean is anyone really listening, and if no one is listening why do we bother doing those strange things at all? We rely on superstition because we are smart enough to know we don’t have all the answers, and that life works in mysterious ways. Don’t diss the ju ju from wherever it comes.”

Let me know your thoughts on Superstitions in the comments below and thanks for reading.

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