Bicycle safety charms

[sophia_sol]

On a scale of superstitiousness, I would rank pretty dang low. I don't believe in ghosts or luck or UFOs or astrology. If an unexplained phenomenon occurs, my instinct is to assume we just don't yet have sufficient information to explain what happened, rather than to think it might be something paranormal.

And yet sometimes I really do understand why so many people find themselves believing in such things!

When I bicycle after dark I have two lights that go on the front and the back of my bike. And recently, to improve my noticeability on dark roads even more, I took some reflective tape and made a triangle on the back of the crate that's over my back wheel, to try to make myself even more visible to vehicles behind me.

And since adding that reflective triangle I feel so much safer bicycling at night - because some part of me feels like I have placed a protective charm on my bicycle that prevents cars from hitting me. What????

I know perfectly well that all I've done is use a high-visibility symbol to communicate with drivers, and a sufficiently inattentive or careless or angry driver could still hit me. And yet!

BRAINS. They sure are weird.

Comments

[sylvaine]

Brains are weird and delightful and so much fun to think about! Thinking about brains with our brains. :P

[sophia_sol]

Exactly! :D

[pauraque]

Ha, very true! In anthropology class the prof told us stuff like that serves the useful purpose of soothing our fears about things we can't fully control, which probably does make things turn out better sometimes since we're less distracted by worry. So if the charm makes you feel protected, the protection is "real" in that sense!

[sophia_sol]

Yeah, that makes a lot of sense! And makes sense too as a reason why humans might have developed this sense of superstition, if it does sometimes help keep us safe.

[lokifan]

Magical thinking sure is a thing brains love doing! And it's super fun, in a harmless context :D

[sophia_sol]

Yeah, for sure! :D