Superstitionists

I work at an old folks home in Reykjavík called Hrafnista. It had been a very quiet morning so I sat down with an elderly woman and had a cup of coffee with her. Like most conversations with elderly people we talked about the weather and she told me about the old days when there were only gravel roads in Iceland and so on. When I had finished my coffee I stood up to go and put the cup in the dishwasher but just as I was standing up she grabbed my arm and asked if I didn't want her to look at my cup and do a fortunetelling. Of course I sat right back down and handed over my empty coffee cup. She laid it upside down on the radiator and waited till the coffee had dried and then the fortunetelling began.

She told me that I would have three kids and I was about to climb a mountain but it wouldn't be as hard as I thought. She also told me that there were many people gathering together soon, maybe a dance of some sort. I listened with intent as she told me about a trip I was about to take and talked about how very handsome the father of my unborn children was. When she had finished her reading she looked at me and said

,,It's weird isn't it? It's just a cup with some coffee in it but when I look at it I see things. But then again I'm just an old lady, I can't see into the future.''

I couldn't stop thinking about the reading she had given me so at lunch I started talking about it with my coworkers. They all knew who I was talking about and nodded as I explained my experience. When I had finished they told me that she was very good at this stuff and that her readings just about always came true.  It turned out as the conversation went on... for too long actually,  that every single person at the table hat either been to a psychic or had there fortune told by someone, except one girl. As the conversation seemed to be coming to a close this girl blurted out that she had never been to a psychic or anything in that field. Everyone was quite shocked. This amused me because I am born in England and I know that if this conversation had arisen there I would be the weird one for having gone to a psychic not the other way around.

I have always known that most Icelanders are a little peculiar but I like to blame that on the darkness all year long (except the three wonderful summer months when the sun never sets), I think this messes with are biological clocks and makes us a little wacky. But we're hardly all crazy? or are we?

If so many of us believe in these so called superstitions isn't it then a kind of religion? And if so why is it so hard for people that are not superstitious to accept people who are.

One of my close friends is an atheist and if anyone ever mentions to him that they went to a psychic he will go out of his way to try and refute psychics or fortunetellers or what ever the topic is.  If a Muslim came up to him and told my friend that he had prayed to Allah five times today for 10 minutes each time, I can say with some certainty that he would not tell the poor man that it was a complete waist of time.

Is it so hard to respect superstitionists (yes I am going to call them superstitionists). Why do superstitionists annoy others so much? Especially atheists it seems.

All I know is that if any of my three future children want to be superstitionists or Muslims or atheists for that matter, that's fine by me. As long as there not harming themselves or others of course.
I guess what I'm saying is doesn't everyone deserve the same amount of respect? To finish I found the perfect quote

,,r-e-s-t-e-c-p''

                     -Ali G