Magical Thinking

I have been thinking of doing The Crazy.* The Crazy takes two weeks and leaves one in her skinny jeans, not to mention on another spiritual plane.

Nina has been washing a lot of cupcakes down with vodka lately, so The Crazy is an excellent idea, especially since seven weeks from now, Nina's schedule includes a winter ascent of Mt. Washington, (ie, mountaineering). Climbing Mt. Washington is a hard day's work. I know because I turned around just short of the summit last season because Zeb said it was too dangerous to continue. That failed summit has been haunting me ever since.







I'm sorry. Where was I?

Reader, I am terrified to crack into the inaugural vial of The Crazy because of magical thinking, defined below (thank you, Wikipedia):

While having no universally accepted definition, magical thinking is described in anthropology, psychology and cognitive science as causal reasoning that often includes such ideas as the law of contagion, correlation equalling causation, the power of symbols and the ability of the mind to affect the physical world.

...Like science, magic is concerned with causal relations, but unlike science, it does not distinguish correlation from causation. For example, a man who has won a bowling competition in a given shirt may then believe this shirt is lucky. He will continue to wear the shirt to bowling competitions, and though he continues to win some and lose some, he will chalk up every win to his lucky shirt.

Magical thinking can occur when one simply does not understand possible causes, as illustrated by Sir Arthur C. Clarke's suggestion that "any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic" (see Clarke's three laws), but can also occur in response to situations that are largely random or chaotic, such as a coin toss, as well as in situations that one has little or no control over, especially those one is emotionally invested in. (Indeed, this can be seen as a special case of failure to understand possible causes: specifically, a failure to understand the laws of probability that guarantee the occurrence of coincidences and seeming patterns.)


I have done The Crazy three times, and each time, something terrible happens on the 10th day. And no, I am not talking about small scale terrible.

1) The first time, I crashed a mountain bike and broke my elbow. (Don't say that's not a big deal, because my arm was screwed up for six months. Thank you.)

2) The second time, my dad was diagnosed with leukemia.


3) The third time, I lost my job (ok one of them but my dad was in the ICU at the time and I was broke and I so did not need that shit to happen right then).

Dare I attempt The Crazy for the fourth time?

Wouldn't it be less trouble to just go shoot somebody or throw my cat out the window?

Because I have a thing about correlation equalling causation?

*sigh*

Ok, cracking into the first batch of herbs. Will report back later with (possible) progress.


*two work outs a day, no drinking, no cupcakes. (!) Lots of arugula, vitamins and Chinese herbs. I haven't looked at the rules in a while but I am pretty sure you are also supposed to refrain from sexual activity and also pray for three hours a day. Wait, that might have been Lent. Sorry.