Is it bad luck to throw out my old Bible?
Q: While clearing out some books, I came across my old school Bible. I was going to put it in the recycling bin, but then I had a sudden fear that I might be struck down by lightning, so I put it back on the shelf. Am I being silly? I.W., Smiths Beach, VIC
A: Sure, you may like to think of yourself as an erudite, educated, enlightened thinker who scoffs in the face of superstitious hocus-pocus, but even the scoffiest of us can, occasionally, be struck down with a chronic bout of the Just-In-Cases.
You may not be a religious person, but you felt compelled to hang on to that Bible, just in case – just in case, there actually is a petty, vindictive spirit in the sky who punishes Bible-binners, even though you planned to use the correct, council-approved, Bible-recycling bin.
Others may not be able to delete an unflattering photo of a loved one, just in case – just in case this somehow also deletes the person and then neither can be retrieved from the cloud, not even if you call Geeks2U. Personally, I can’t bring myself to erase decades of text conversations with my wife, just in case – just in case this mysteriously erases our relationship, our story, even though pretty much all of those conversations are “Need bread/ [thumbs-up emoji]/milk too!”, sent while we’re both at home, sometimes in the same room.
The only cure for the Just-In-Cases is a piece of “peace of mind”. Hang on to your school Bible, the bad photos, the mindless texts, and take comfort in the idea that maybe you’ve saved a relationship. Or avoided a loved one’s death. Or appeased a god you don’t believe in, who should probably be attending to more pressing global emergencies right now.
Read more from Modern Guru:
Am I being precious about how to use my tea towel?
Should I hassle a fellow passenger to switch his phone to flight mode?
Is it trashy to put dog-poo bags in a stranger’s bin?
Is it OK to make use of my dead neighbour’s bins?
To read more from Good Weekend magazine, visit our page at The Sydney Morning Herald, The Age and Brisbane Times.
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Danny Katz is a columnist for The Age and The Sydney Morning Herald. He writes the Modern Guru column in the Good Weekend magazine. He is also the author of the books Spit the Dummy, Dork Geek Jew and the Little Lunch series for kids.