Luck or White Lie...Fingers Crossed

Everyone, and I do mean everyone, at some point in their life has had a superstition. For me, the one I still find myself doing even as an adult is crossing my fingers for luck. Especially when I'm sitting waiting to see a score, I'm crossing my fingers for good luck. I don't actually believe that crossing my fingers will give me luck but it's a habit I had as a child and still have not broken today. It's even mentioned in everyday life and in movies and songs. Here is an example of song that uses this phrase for good luck:

Today I'm going to give you some background theories about probable origins of the finger crossing superstition. I will then try to give you an example of how crossing our fingers for luck or to annul the white lie that we told. After that I will analyze the story and an extra scenario so that you can see what I'm talking about with superstitions playing a part in the fallacies in our logic and reasoning.

Have you ever wondered where the concept of crossing your fingers came from? According to www.wisegeek.com, one meaning of crossed fingers could be bringing good luck and warding off evil spirits or witches. The origins have been hard to find and it is believed to have begun during a time period between Pre-Christianity and Early Christianity. While researching, I came across information that I had never heard before. There were those people who believed in "sacred geometry" and they thought that gentle spirits lived in intersection of crosses and this required two people. Seiyaku.com also mentions this theory as a possibility and they refer to the intersection as the "Solar Cross". One person would hold out his or her index finger while the other would put his or her own index finger to form a cross. These people then used this method to make wishes.

The next theory that WiseGeek talks about is one of my favorites. It deals with secret societies and just seems to resemble one of my favorite games Assassin's Creed about a secret society. Christianity became an outlawed religion during it's early history. It's followers had to form a secret society and to protect their identities they had to develop secret hand signs to be able to recognize each other. Talk about insanely cool!! I mean it would be horrible to have to resort to secret meeting in order to avoid getting caught and quite possibly tortured. But the idea of secret societies and conspiracies makes interesting fodder for a fantasy novel (keeping that idea for later).

Another theory that interested me was when a possible origin of the modern day version of crossing fingers was mentioned starting up around the time of the Hundred Years War from 1337 to 1457. Individuals on both sides of the army needed all the luck they could get and archers would have crossed his fingers and quickly prayed before pulling the bowstring back. Why do you think the archer would cross their fingers? Was it for good luck so that they would hit their target? Perhaps once while they crossed their fingers and shot they hit the intended target so they figured it would continuously do so, turning it into a superstition.

To break away from the theories of luck and warding off evil, most of us as children would cross our fingers when telling a "white lie". According to Wikipedia, this could have sprung up from the belief that the "Christian cross"could possibly save a person who told a lie from going to hell. Which brings me to the next thing I would like to address about fallacies and superstitions affecting logic. I would like to help illustrate how superstitions such as finger crossing play into our logic and reasoning by sharing a short story I wrote. Try to see if you can see some fallacies and superstitions. 

As I'm walking home from school, I know I'm toast. I know mom is going to ask me how the test went. I thought I did so well, how could I have failed? If mom finds out, I'm grounded and have to miss the school dance. Maybe she won't ask and I won't have to tell her. Even if she does ask, I don't really have to tell her do I? I pause on our stairs with my hand on the door. I mean what she doesn't know can't hurt her right? Plus I will make sure to do better on the next test to help boost my grade back up. All of this bad luck I'm having all because I walked under that ladder last week. How will I survive seven years bad luck? It won't really last that long will it?

I hear mom vacuuming the living room so maybe I can sneak past her. I quietly step into the entryway and close the door as silently as I can. I slide my shoes off and peak into the living room. Mom has her back turned so here's my chance. Sliding across the hall, I hasten upstairs to my room. I get into my room and I hear the vacuum shut off. Dog gone it! She heard me on the stairs. She calls up to my room but I put my headphones in so I can't hear her. I pull out my chemistry book just in time. Mom opens my door and motions for me to pull out my headphones. 

"How'd your test go honey?"

I brace myself and put my headphones down. What should I say? Before I know it, my mouth started talking before my "filter" could kick in. "Oh, it went good. It was a hard test but studying helped." I replied with my fingers crossed hidden from mom's view. 

She smiled at me. "That's great! You can still go to the dance tomorrow. Just wait, I got you something." She disappears from my sight. How could I lie to her? But... it's not like I'm hurting anyone. I mean, it's not like I killed someone. All I did was tell a little white lie. What could go wrong?

Mom came back hiding something out of my view. "You know that dress you wanted to get this weekend? Well, I went back and picked it up just in case you passed." She was beaming.

I felt horrible. "That's great mom."

Did you notice all of superstitions and fallacies in logic in this story? Did you notice how the main character justified lying to her mom by saying it wouldn't hurt her? Well physically, no it wouldn't but it would hurt emotionally that her daughter had lied to her. Did you also notice that the daughter crossed her fingers when she lied, and still as a teen she thought that it would cancel out her lie? The daughter also blamed walking under a ladder as the main cause for her  failing a test rather than take the blame herself for not studying or being prepared. And to the daughter, this seemed to be logically sound. We know better and can see this for the fallacy in logic it actually is.

So why do we still cross our fingers for luck or to "cancel" a promise? Why do we still practice other superstitions like black cats? We know that superstitions such as this can affect our logic yet we still do them. BF Skinner, a behavioral psychologist, studying supposed superstitious behavior in pigeons. His theory has been adapted to explain superstition in humans. Basically this would mean that we continue to practice or "believe" in superstitions because of two main reasons: 1) the person thinks that by continuously practicing the superstition it will eventually work; or 2) the practice of the superstition has coincided with an event or result and could continue to do so either at random or continuously. Which makes sense if it happened as a child. If I'm remembering correctly, I observed someone else crossing their fingers in several instances and as a kid I thought that it was magic because they seemed to always get what they wanted. And as a child, we are extremely influenced easily by what we see or hear.

You can't make fun of people who are very superstitious because most people still hold onto some superstition - consciously or unconsciously regardless of good or bad reasoning. This could range anywhere from finger crossing to avoiding stepping on cracks to ways of breaking the hex like knocking on wood, etc. Here is a video of two comedians and their take on superstitions. 

While this video is funny, it shows how superstitions can contribute to fallacies in logic and reasoning. For example, they believe all the things that go wrong (towel on the floor, interrupting the breaking of a hex, breaking a mirror, black cat) can affect the basketball game they are about to play. The are a bit extreme in the lengths they go to "break the hexes" but this is a comedic sketch. But some people who are this superstitious could go to the same lengths. Can you now name some superstitions you still hold on to? Do you notice it affecting your judgement in any way?

Luck or White Lie....Fingers Crossed Draft

Everyone, and I do mean everyone, at some point in their life have had a superstition. For me, the one I still find myself doing even as an adult is crossing my fingers for luck. Especially when I'm sitting waiting to see a score, I'm crossing my fingers for good luck. I don't actually believe that crossing my fingers will give me luck but it's a habit I had as a child and still have not broken today.

Have you ever wondered though where the concept of crossing your fingers came from? According to www.wisegeek.com, one meaning of crossed fingers could be bringing good luck and warding off evil spirits or witches. The origins have been hard to find and it is believed to have begun during a time period between Pre-Christianity and Early Christianity. While researching, I came across information that I had never heard before. There were those people who believed in "sacred geometry" and they thought that gentle spirits lived in intersection of crosses and this required two people. Seiyaku.com also mentions this theory as a possibility and they refer to the intersection as the "Solar Cross". One person would hold out his or her index finger while the other would put his or her own index finger to form a cross. These people then used this method to make wishes.

The next theory that WiseGeek talks about is one of my favorites. It deals with secret societies and just seems to resemble one of my favorite games Assassin's Creed about a secret society. Christianity became an outlawed religion during it's early history. It's followers had to form a secret society and to protect their identities they had to develop secret hand signs to be able to recognize each other. Talk about insanely cool!! I mean it would be horrible to have to resort to secret meeting in order to avoid getting caught and quite possibly tortured. But the idea of secret societies and conspiracies makes interesting fodder for a fantasy novel (keeping that idea for later).

Another theory that interested me was when WiseGeek talked about the possible origin of the modern day version of crossing fingers. They talked about the Hundred Years War from 1337 to 1457. Individuals on both sides of the army needed all the luck they could get and archers would have crossed his fingers and quickly prayed before pulling the bowstring back.

To break away from the theories of luck and warding off evil, most of us as children would cross our fingers when telling a "white lie". According to Wikipedia, this could have sprung up from the belief that the "Christian cross"could possibly save a person who told a lie from going to hell. Which brings me to the next thing I would like to address about fallacies and superstitions affecting logic. In the meantime, enjoy this video I happened upon that has lyrics pertaining to crossing fingers for good luck:

So why do we still cross our fingers for luck or to "cancel" a promise? We know that superstitions such as this can affect our logic yet we still do them. BF Skinner, a behavioral psychologist, studying supposed superstitious behavior in pigeons. His theory has been adapted to explain superstition in humans. Basically this would mean that we continue to practice or "believe" in superstitions because of two main reasons: 1) the person thinks that by continuously practicing the superstition it will eventually work; or 2) the practice of the superstition has coincided with an event or result and could continue to do so either at random or continuously. Which makes sense if it happened as a child. If I'm remembering correctly, I observed someone else crossing their fingers in several instances and as a kid I thought that it was magic because they seemed to always get what they wanted. And as a child, we are extremely influenced easily by what we see or hear.

Here's another video for you to enjoy about superstitions:

Superbowl, Wings, & Little Smokies

My family had a typical Superbowl party at our home that included 2 cousins, 2 of my brother's friends, my parents, my boyfriend, and myself. With the unanimous decision that we wanted the Baltimore Ravens to win, we watched as Alicia Keys sang the anthem and waited for kick-off. No one was grabbing any of the food, so I got to be first in line. First choice of the wings (which were amazing), a scoop of little smokies & meatballs, and the first handful of BBQ chips. Of course, once I started eating everyone else quick ran to the kitchen in between plays to get food. I was not too concerned because neither were my teams and the game really isn't over until the last handful of plays in the fourth quarter.

I thought it was pretty neat that the coaches were brothers. In my opinion, the better team won the Superbowl and the majority of the commercials were pretty good. The only commercial I didn't like and thought was a bit disgusting (and showed twice!!) was the GoDaddy commercial. If you missed it, it was a blonde Barbie-type girl who represented the "looks" of GoDaddy with the stereotypical computer nerd who represented the behind the scenes. And they made out... Very gross actually, to watch on TV and it zoomed in on the making out. Ewwwww....

That's beside the point though. I thought it was interesting that the lights went out and the game was paused for about half an hour. It really changed the momentum of the game. The Ravens were on a roll and after that, it was like the pause that San Francisco needed to come back. I thought San Francisco would win the game until that play in the endzone. You know the play, the one that many people think should've been called as illegal contact or something or the sort. I will agree that there probably should've been a call, but I'm very glad there was not. The way I understand it is if it would've been called, San Francisco would've gotten the ball on the 1 yard line with a 1st down. That would've been the end of the game. But the play wasn't called and based off of who was pumped up before the lights went out, I think the right team won. I found this picture hilarious:

Here's another form of media for you to enjoy. I really do like this video!

Side-note: If you are following this blog and my New Media blog, this will be a repeat for you. I had to post about the Superbowl on my school blog, but I also wanted to on my own personal blog.

So Homework...Right

You know when you are supposed to write down when your assignments are due so you know when to work on them before they are due? Yeah...I'm not very good at that. I do try, just sometimes I miss things. Take for example today: I got to school thinking I had gotten all my homework done. Right after my ARTD class, I run into Briana (a good friend of mine). She asked if I had gotten my video done for my next class. My heart skips several beats as I realize I forgot about that assignment. I rush to my room because I have an hour before that class and the deadline. I spent the first 30 minutes trying to make a PowerPoint with the necessary information. I'm thinking it's going to be a very bland video when I remember a site we talked a bit about in this class. It's called Xtranormal, and it's one of my new favorite websites to use! Here's what I put together in the remaining 30 minutes before the deadline :)

My Precious (said like Smeagol)

“The world is indeed full of peril and in it there are many dark places.

But still there is much that is fair. And though in all lands, love is now
mingled with grief, it still grows, perhaps, the greater.” 
― J.R.R. Tolkien, The Lord of the Rings

I absolutely love this version of "Misty Mountains"!! The violinist is Jun Sung Ahn and I really love all of the songs that he plays. He has recorded several songs such as "Some Nights" and "I Won't Give Up", which are among my very favorites along with this song. I will freely admit that I have an obsession, but there's no way I will ever change or become non-obsessive especially about this series :)

“It's a dangerous business, Frodo, going out your door. You step onto the road, and if you don't keep your feet, there's no knowing where you might be swept off to.” 

― J.R.R. Tolkien, The Lord of the Rings

I've always been obsessed with Lord of the Rings. I watched the movies first and then have read the book 7 times. I have the trilogy combined into one book, so that is a total of 1,007 (or 1,004) pages. I just can't get enough of it, plus I've always wanted to be an elf like Legolas.

To wield a sweet bow, have long flowing locks of hair, and talk with that awesome accent. This was probably one of the first novels I noticed that I was sucked into completely and wholly. I have always loved fantasy novels, but my love for them originally started with Lord of the Rings. One of the few books that I can read over and over and over without getting bored.

Come to think of it, this obsession might have been the major contributing influence to my choice in character for Skyrim. As well as the characters of stories that I am working on. But hey, that doesn't bug me. I'm just adding fuel to my obsession with elves, Lord of the Rings, and fantasy.

“Three Rings for the Elven-kings under the sky,

Seven for the Dwarf-lords in halls of stone,

Nine for Mortal Men, doomed to die,

One for the Dark Lord on his dark throne

In the Land of Mordor where the Shadows lie.

One Ring to rule them all, One Ring to find them,

One Ring to bring them all and in the darkness bind them.

In the Land of Mordor where the Shadows lie.” 

― J.R.R. Tolkien, The Lord of the Rings