I was going to give a specific example of what I mean, but I found that this line of thinking had rendered me too superstitious to be willing to do so -- not even with the traditional precaution of saying "knock on wood."
A few hours after these reflections, which I had not verbalized in any way, I had to do some housework and decided to play some music. I decided, for complex psychological reasons, to play "Rhinestone Cowboy" by Glen Campbell while singing "Sloop John B" -- which, as it turns out, works pretty well for most parts of the two songs, though there are a few bits that are difficult to harmonize. When "Rhinestone Cowboy" finished, my hands were occupied, so I just let the algorithm do its thing. Somehow, a few songs later, it had gone from country crooning to ska punk and was playing "The Impression That I Get" by the Mighty Mighty Bosstones, a song I don't think I'd ever heard before.
Here's the chorus:
I've never had to knock on woodBut I know someone who hasWhich makes me wonder if I couldIt makes me wonder if I'veNever had to knock on woodAnd I'm glad I haven't yetBecause I'm sure it isn't goodThat's the impression that I get
This is of course the very sort of thing you shouldn't say without knocking on wood, but they've made it meta by replacing the specific bad thing with "knock on wood" itself.
The song kind of rocks, tho. Something about bands from Boston.
6 comments:
You're quite right that there is a noticeable inner taboo against saying or thinking this; although it's probably something that anyone who tries to believe in a loving creator God perhaps ought to notice and resist!
Arkle was especially tough on this kind of thing in Geography of Consciousness: scathing in general about the concept of "luck". It made me think again.
As a bit of a fan of ska and the like (rocksteady, especially), I hadn't come across this US band (or song) - but it seems to me pretty mediocre compared with the Jamaican and British best of the style!
I know you are a long time exPat but how have you never heard this song! *checks wiki to find out song is nearly 30 years old* Still sounds great. And great synchronicity from you, as usual.
Bruce, I don't see why that taboo would be inconsistent with a loving creator God. What' s the connection?
Mark, I never had the habit of watching television or listening to the radio, so there's plenty of music from "my time" that I'm quite unfamiliar with.
I was thinking mainly of this passage - https://charltonteaching.blogspot.com/2023/04/how-we-make-our-luck-individually-and.html - (other discussions can be found by searching Arkle and luck).
But now I look at it again, Arkle does seem to be confirming you point, or explaining the possibility in a similar way:
"The burden of all this is that a great deal of our ‘luck’ may be caused by the reaction of our background to the quality or attitude of our own consciousness. "
In explaining how "we make our own luck" - Arkle makes much the same point as you have.
The point I was making was that this idea of attracting bad stuff needs to *avoid* the presumption mindset - e.g. that the judge-god/s will punish us for our presumption - "therefore" we ought always to be careful to be pessimistic and "'umble" in all we say and think - to avoid an offence that invites divine retribution.
I'm saying that this way of thinking seems to be *assuming* a non-loving creator God - one unlike an ideal parent, and more like a proud tyrant.
On the flip side I've noticed in my own life and others I know, how often (but not always) the "one thing" we hope will not happen to us - does.
In my case, as a young man I always used to say that headaches were the worst kind of pain, because we felt "inside" them - then I later developed such debilitating and frequent migraines that I became unable to do my job!
I think this sort of stuff may be because the "one thing" sometimes represents something wrong with our attitudes and motivations - something that we need to learn from.
For instance - someone who really wants Not to become helpless and dependent, may well end by being exactly that.
In *some* such instances this may be because that person needs (needs for their eternal post-mortal condition) to learn something very important (maybe vitally important) about themselves and/or the world; something that otherwise they have persistently failed to learn.
A harsh lesson here-and-now - but intended for our own ultimate good. It's like we each have an Achilles Heel type flaw that needs repenting or else it could block salvation, and therefore it may help us to be pricked exactly on that spot.
This is not meant as a general point, but to be considered in individual instances.
Okay, I see what you mean. If it's viewed as God "punishing" you, I agree it assumes and reinforces a non-loving idea of God. If it's viewed more as a law of nature -- that the things we say and do can, by some unknown mechanism, serve as "attractors" for coincidences -- I don't think it has any particular theological implications.
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