[This is a work of fiction, but based on a superstition I encountered when I visited a village recently.]
I am an educated woman, even if I choose to live in a village seeped in superstition. I know all about immunizations and building immunity. I know that when my son falls ill, it is because of bacteria or viruses, not because someone's cast the evil eye on his. I trust modern medicine.
But my son seems to ill all the time. Even if antibiotics cure my son, his immunity is so poor, he soon falls sick again.
If hanging a used shoe outside the entrance to my hut is going to keep away the evil spirits, why not try?
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A drabble is a story told in exactly 100 words.
19 comments:
Don't take any chances - hang both shoes!
Superstition is very much alive in our part of the world
It definitely cannot hurt, unless you need the shoe. I'd cover all my bets. :)
Thank you for the hug from India. I'm sending one back from the USA. :D
Jules @ Trying To Get Over The Rainbow
Rayna - First, what a wonderful 'photo!! I think we need to be open to all sorts of ways of thinking. Western medicine has tremendous advantages and has saved millions of lives. Science has a prominent role to play in our understanding. But neither Western medicine nor science explains everything. I know of too many cases where things happened that cannot be explained in "modern science" ways to think that there are no other kinds of solutions...
So it was a shoe? If you knew how much I stared at that picture trying to figure out what it was. (A bird? - a bat? - a shoe?)
But if I were you, I might try Colostrum (that is what I take to boost my own, very weak immune system, and it has kept me free of penicillin for three years now).
vast hugs across the great sea because we are sisters and I love your drabbles.
smoooooooooooooochy.
We all have our superstitions, educated or not.
Working in Neoanatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) I've seen many neonates returning from the jaws of death and many apparently healthy ones succumbing to unknown causes (SIDS).
If the rituals are not breaking the safety protocols and do not endanger the health of the diseased ; I see no harm in allowing them to be performed.
Many a times, it's the faith that makes the difference.
I agree-why not? But I wonder, why a shoe?
It can't hurt. I agree with Alex, hang both shoes! Would you please email me (donnab6464@gmail.com) on how you put your name on your photos? I am sure you use photoshop elements, but I need step by step instructions...anyone else, feel free to send me your advice in addition to Rayna's.
Local superstitions and home remedies are so often built on logic - it never hurts to try!
@ Alex- absolutely.
@ Grandpa- as long as you do not put faith only in superstition, and it doesn't hurt anyone else, why not?
@ Jules- totally. And it is also a good way to ensure shoes continue to lead a productive life even after retirement.
@ Margot- thanks- the photgraph did come out well, didn't it?
And yes, we definitely do not have all the answers, so who are we to insist something else doesn't work?
@ Dorte- it is called a moojri, and is worn by men in the northern parts of India. Women wear it too, but they are typically more decorative for the women.
And I shall try that if you say it works- all our immune systems need a boost.
@ Jan- thank you. Means a lot to me.
@ Debra- quite. I know I do.
@ Amey - so true, Amey. When my kids were babies, I would listen to anyone who had anything to say that make sense. So why I may not have had much faith in a pearl on a black thread (more than anything else, I thougth the kid may strangle himself pulling on it), I was happy enough to try crushing garlic into warm massage oil, because that seemed to make sense.
@ Oddyoddyo13- maybe the evil spirits have been hit by them in the past, and don't want that experience repeated?
@ Donna- you can do that too for your grandchild.
@ Jemi- very often, there is a sound locigal base, which has got list in the superstition surroundign it.
Rayna, I have suffered from Chronic Fatigue Syndrome for c 6 years. The first years I ran into pneumonia or similar illnesses every winter and had to have penicillin to get well. Three years ago I began taking Colostrum, and now I get over colds much faster, and I haven´t even been close to needing penicilling. (Colostrum protects people´s immune system in the same way as your own breast milk).
I buy Bovine Colostrum from here and take 3 tablets a day: http://www.nzpurehealth.co.nz/
If you buy 5 bottles at the same time, they´ll ship it for free.
why not indeed!! well written.. loved it!
This made me smile, because I'm superstitious, myself! It doesn't do any harm to avoid breaking mirrors, or avoid walking under ladders, or avoid opening umbrellas in the house, or...
Well when educated people slice lemon and place them on the doorstep in coimbatore to ward off evil eye on their flats, why not for kids...after all they are the nation's future...
@ Dorte - never knew about- should ask my doctor about it- kids are the ones who fall ill more. Thank you.
@ Anu - thank you
@ Elizabeth - precisely. As long as it doesn't drive you insane, why take chances?
@ Rek - precisely. And I guess it doesn't hurt too much, either.
@ Dorte - never knew about- should ask my doctor about it- kids are the ones who fall ill more. Thank you.
@ Anu - thank you
@ Elizabeth - precisely. As long as it doesn't drive you insane, why take chances?
@ Rek - precisely. And I guess it doesn't hurt too much, either.
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