Do you have any areas of your life where you have certain rituals that you feel that you must do?

[I Have A Dream]

Disclosure: I am not a skeptic, but I always try to treat those who do not believe as I do with respect.

I work with a very nice man who is a skeptic. I live near Pittsburgh, and as you may know, the Penguins are in the Stanley Cup playoffs.

My coworker was discussing the game and described the elaborate ritual that he follows during each game. (e.g., he must wear a certain shirt during every game and it must not be washed during the entire playoff period, he must not shave during the playoffs, etc.) When I asked him why he would do such things since he's a skeptic, he responded by saying very seriously "But this is SPORTS!!!". I couldn't help but laugh (with him).

Do you have any areas of your life where you do things like this? Any other sports fans here who do similar things? :shrug:

Should he lose his skeptics card? :rofl:

I love humans! :D

[charlie]

1. No

But I do catch myself waving the ball into the hoop after I shoot. Bowlers are especially fun to watch for that. They do some crazy gyrations for a strike :)

If you see Stephen King with a beard, it's baseball season. It's a ritual he's followed most of his adult life.

[I Have A Dream]

3. Very interesting!

Thanks for sharing these, charlie.

:)

[mr blur]

2. Nope. Well, apart from

bowing to YakPoGo once every morning as I pass his shrine.



Just, you know, for luck...

[I Have A Dream]

4. Come on...

you know that you really fear the wrath of YakPoGo. I bet you even make him offerings of orbs on the sly. :eyes:

You lose your skeptics card too! x(

:rofl:

[TZ]

5. LOL-you will appreciate this

Every year on our birthdays me and my sisters always check the if you were born on this day horoscope. My mom was always interested in personality aspects of the horoscope..so I grew up with it. I actually do kinda fit the Gemini profile and....occasionally the if you were born on this day has a bit of relevancy...;)

[I Have A Dream]

6. Yes, you do fit the Gemini sun sign profile. (I won't say any more since it's in this forum.)

:D

Thanks for sharing that, TZ!

[woo me with science]

7. I don't fit my sign at all,

but Astrologists have told me that's because I fit my rising sign.

I guess that's the backup. :)

[I Have A Dream]

8. How about you, woo me? Have you got any rituals?

:)

[woo me with science]

14. Well, according to my sister,

I was ritually abused in a satanic cult. Does that count?

I guess I'm just not trying hard enough to remember.

I do have one ritual, but it involves pie and really good coffee on the weekends.

[Odin2005]

12. LOL, I'm a Taurus and it doesn't fit me AT ALL.

I'm not "down-to-Earth, conservative, and sensual" and what not. In fact I took one of those OK Cupid on-line tests once and my "real" sign was Aquarius, LOL.

[woo me with science]

15. Well...

Taurii are stubborn creatures, so obviously the fact that you deny it proves you are! :rofl:

[Odin2005]

16. LOL!!!

[dropkickpa]

9. I put my left shoe on first

Does that count?

[I Have A Dream]

10. How do you feel when you don't?

Is it just a habit, or do you feel unsettled or concerned if you don't do it?

[Odin2005]

11. I have Asperger's and have OCD, do I need to explain more?

:yoiks: :rofl:

When I get up in the morning and go to bed at night I have to do things in a certain "ritualistic" order otherwise my anxiety and stress levels go through the roof.

[I Have A Dream]

13. Yeah, I think that there's a "logical" explanation for your rituals.

:D

A person's gotta do what a person's gotta do...

:bounce:

[Evoman]

17. I pull my pants down before I take a crap.

It's just this thing that I HAVE to do. I started doing it about 3 years ago, and I haven't stopped doing it since.

[I Have A Dream]

19. Thank you for sharing that.

I'm sure that it made life MUCH easier. :)

[moggie]

18. No

But skeptics sometimes have a playful attitude to superstitions, and are willing to adopt them for entertainment purposes. True believers often ask "where's the harm in believing in x?" Skeptics think that it is harmful to adopt magical thinking about how the world works, but if someone simply thinks "I know that wearing my 'lucky shirt' doesn't really affect the game, but I wear it to get into the spirit of the event, plus it makes for a funny story", it seems to me that that's pretty harmless. Though I'm not so sure about not washing the shirt: that's not good for the people around him.

[I Have A Dream]

22. He's only wearing the shirt at home during the playoff games...

so I don't think that it's gotten too offensive yet.

I do, however, think that he was serious and didn't feel at all embarrassed about it. For some people, there really are different rules for sports. :) (I say that after having been married to a sports-aholic for almost a decade...)

Thank you for your response.

[semillama]

20. This is a good story:

When I was in grad school, I "liberated" a plastic rooster from a frat house party and brought out to our archaeological field school. My adviser dubbed it "Father Poulet" and we constructed a voodoo shrine for it on the campground picnic table out of fire wood, adorned with ferns and candles. Every night during the field school, we left Father Poulet ritual offerings of food, tobacco, Cruzan Rum and beer for a good day of excavation on the morrow.

I still have Father Poulet, but he's strictly an office idol now. He still gets offerings of odd, non-archaeological things I find on projects though.

[I Have A Dream]

21. A touch of whimsy is always a good thing, in my opinion.

Father Poulet...

:thumbsup:

:D

[onager]

23. Sign o' the cross

When I'm riding buses here in Los Angeles, many of my co-riders reflexively make the Sign of the Cross whenever the bus passes a Catholic church.

Some are quick/devout enough to do it twice, which I guess would be the Sign of the Double-Cross.

As a Fundamentalist Atheist, I often join them with my own reflexive gesture that requires less movement. And only one finger.