RANDOM OR RIGGED?

My neighbor saw this hole in my tree and thought I drilled it. I explained a woodpecker made it. When he still looked at me quizzically, I replied, ‘I watched him do it.’ Sometimes the conclusions we draw have no connection to the truth.

Franklin D. Roosevelt believed that if you said, ‘rabbit rabbit,’ the first day of every month, it brought good luck. He even credited winning the Presidency with the habit. I know someone who believes the number 111 is meaningful and even makes decisions based on it. So far, he hasn’t won the lottery.

Both he and FDR are victims of Apophenia. This is the tendency to interpret random patterns as meaningful. They are not alone. We all have our quirky superstitions. If we believe something passionately enough, good or ill, it affects our thinking which affects our bodies and consequently our actions.

Sometimes I marvel how we’ve managed to survive for the last 200,000 years with such idiosyncrasies. When Hegseth became Secretary of Defense, one senator said, “I realize he doesn’t have the qualifications or background but maybe that’s just what the country needs.” That’s like telling a starving person, “Look, I can’t give you a sandwich but chew this cardboard instead. It might be just what you need.”

People often say, ‘Everything happens for a reason,’ as if to console themselves in the face of tragedy. But too many bad things happen to good people for that to make any intelligent sense. If you can find ‘a reason’ for the extermination of 6 million Jews or the slaughter of 4 million Native Americans, let me know.

Things happen. Brakes fail, roofs crumble, fires burn, aneurysms burst, viruses spread, floods rage and stars collide. Whether you’re the victim of a calamity, a failed marriage or an incurable disease, it’s not because there’s some reason for it. You can’t control what befalls you. However, you can sift through the ashes of your ruin and find some nugget of hope. It will help you heal.

Recently, my dentist said, “God answers all our prayers.” When she noticed my birthday was in January she added, “Oh! I’m a Capricorn, too.” So, is she a Christian who also believes in mysticism? Apparently. Can I believe in prayer even if I doubt that God hears all 8 billion of us saying them? You bet. Because I believe in the power of the mind, and anything it conceives is possible.