Superstitions and Wishful Thinking

My stepdaughter is determined to make a living from acting, film and theatre. As such, she's embarked on something of a campaign where she's making humorous TikTok snippets, finding odd jobs as a model, hanging out with friends in the business, and generally expanding her network as much as possible.

Looking for opportunities

One promising connection is the daughter of the former mayor of Matosinhos. She's the same age as my stepdaughter and endowed with many connections. This industrious and ambitious woman has decided to incorporate my stepdaughter into her plans, and they have spent much time together lately. They've been making plans, called various schools, and set up appointments where they present some of their projects, including a drama course targeted towards high school students.

Matosinhos beach

A meeting was ensured with a school, and the two women were naturally excited. They got together, and planned everything down to the last detail. My daughter was invited to stay the night for good measure. But the next day, something unforeseen happened. The society girl developed a cough and a fever. She felt absolutely horrible, and their meeting with the school was going to happen the next day. What was she to do?

First concern was to check if my stepdaughter was ill as well. They'd been close with each other for 24 hours straight. The chances of my stepdaughter not having caught a whiff of whatever was ailing her was close to nil. But my stepdaughter was feeling fine.

Her second concern was with the planned meeting. Was she to postpone it? After thinking about it for some time, she decided to keep the appointment. She'd don a mask. That would protect everyone in the room from her cough, fever and sniffles.

Magic mask

So the two women showed up at the school. My daughter feeling fine, and her friend a mess, coughing and sneezing. Sweaty and cold, but still able to present a coherent story. The meeting went all right. Dates were agreed upon for a small performance to illustrate what they can deliver. But these dates had to be postponed.

It turns out that my stepdaughter's friend was smitten by the feared virus. She tested herself first thing on returning home, and the test came out positive. My stepdaughter has subsequently tested herself, with a negative result. But with the project owner sick, no meetings of any kind can be legally arranged. She was forced to postpone the agreed upon meetings.

What I find interesting in all of this is how superstitions and wishful thinking played into this story. The society girl could have tested herself right away. But she decided to take the test after the crucial first meeting. To protect everybody, she donned a magic mask. Then, she tests herself after the fact, discovering that she was smitten.

All of this is a jumbled mix of nonsense when seen from a pure medical perspective. But pragmatic issues take precedence in most people's lives. We don't act according to fixed rules, and the propaganda surrounding vaccines, masks and social distancing has made the world open for a whole lot of superstition. These superstitions are in turn used pragmatically to arrange for things that shouldn't be done if one was true to logic and principles of science.