Thursday, December 29, 2011

Friday Loose Bloggers Consortium: Ideas

This incredibly difficult topic was chosen by Will Knott. He will be punished. ;) jk

I've been thinking a little bit lately about how we get certain ideas in our head that may not actually be right, or true. For example, my mother's answer for every ailment is either to drink more water, or eat less sugar. While those two things do have health benefits, and do help in certain situations, they are not the cure-all for every disease. But she has those two ideas plastered on the inside of her brain, so will always give that advice.

Many Chinese have certain ideas and traditions about keeping the body temperature even. When I lived in China, I saw many people wearing several layers of clothing so that they wouldn't "catch cold". After a woman gives birth, they don't want her to drink any cold liquid, or to even bathe for a month. But I read about a study a few years ago that sort of tested this idea. They took some students in England and had them strip down to their underwear, and had them stand out in the snow and cold. While they did get very cold, none of them actually caught a cold or other illness. Someone recently told me that while he was at his home in Thailand, he went outside without his umbrella and got rained on. Then he caught a cold. He is sure that the rain is what made him sick. But colds are caused by bacteria, not cold weather. But we all have certain ideas like this that we latch on to, and firmly believe, even though they may not have a root in reality.

I'm sorry to say that some of these kinds of rigid ideas come with old age. I know that the older I get, the more determined I am that things should be done a certain way. I freely admit that I'm just being obsessive, and that there might be a better way, but I still stand firm in my ideas. Come on, you know you do it too. ;) I like to think that I am open minded, but when it really comes down to it, I am not that open to ideas that veer drastically from my own. Some of these ideas are influenced by the culture I experienced growing up. Some are definitely influenced by my religion. I think we all have these kinds of rigid ideas to one degree or another. Having strong ideas and opinions is what gives us the faith to follow through with our beliefs! It's like the old saying, "You have to stand for something or you will fall for anything."

You may not agree with what I've written about ideas. You may think I'm really out on a limb with this. But there my ideas and I'm sticking with them!! (..pounds fist...) ;)

Now go see what the other members were able to come up with in response to Will Knott's challenging topic.

6 comments:

Rummuser said...

"Ideas are like rabbits. You get a couple, learn how to handle them, and pretty soon you have a dozen."
~John Steinbeck

Grannymar said...

I am smiling at the point about clothing. My father had some crazy idea that when it came to clothes 'What kept out the cold, also kept out the heat'! No way could my mother convince him to reduce the layers in the odd summer heatwave in Ireland!

Anonymous said...

I suppose cold and wet could reduce your resistance to infection.

But I'm shocked at the huge gap in your mother's medical knowledge. Didn't she realise that a cup of tea cures everything?

Conrad said...

The reason that the kids did not catch colds was because of the underwear! That's just something I know.

I love the way you wheeled around this topic. It is always a balance between openness and commitment, isn't it?

Looney said...

Delirious, it looks like you are rapidly becoming qualified to be a mother-in-law. The important thing is to have unshakable ideas!

Maria said...

I could write a post in reply to this. I remember when my kids were small my in-laws were obsessive about them wearing hats and sweaters in the house during winter. Maybe because we don't have central heating. I'd never heard anything so silly in m life and told them so. But that was their idea.