Eastern Europeans, it seems, have a much longer list of superstitions that concern them than those of the West. Does the fact these countries have been war-torn and decidedly less free have anything to do with this? A woman who came here from Ukraine twenty years ago, won’t use leftovers “because it’s pig food” even though she no longer has a pig, so leftovers end up in the garbage. She worries about knives left out because they foment discord when unsheathed. And anything used she purchases she leaves outside for “cleansing,” regardless of whether rain is in the forecast or not. As a result, more garbage is created when it inevitably rains. Yet there is simply no talking her out of any of these worries or practices. What can Creator tell us?

What is being exhibited here is a series of cultural beliefs that might be termed "superstitions," and again are not an illogical expression of fantasy but an interpretation of real-world dilemmas that are simply not fully understood, and the ritualistic behaviors are proposed as a safeguard. In prior eras, leftover food would quickly spoil and people learned the hard way, and early on, it could not be fully trusted, and so was relegated to livestock, so that was a common-sense notion. But when such ideas become a cultural belief and a saying, they can trap a person into a routine in serving false assumptions that are well-intentioned but might be out of place in the current environment. This is showing the power of the mind and inner beliefs to rule behavior. People will not be able to overcome inner beliefs giving them pause, and will likely go with the preconceived notions they learned as a youngster, because it is deeply ingrained and cannot be overridden, but must be followed. It is understandable that common wisdom arose that leaving knives out in the open invite their use if there is a flaring of tempers and an altercation that might escalate in intensity. Leaving weapons about ready at hand, therefore, can be seen as a danger that is avoidable and will seem like a common-sense solution to those programmed to believe it is a meaningful hazard, and they are simply following their inner marching orders to do what is customary as the way they were raised, and again it will be automatic and belief-based and not easily overridden through conscious choice, as there will be no desire to do so, because it goes against the grain for them. So this is a good illustration of the power of superstition to persist within a culture generation after generation because, once learned, it cannot simply be put back on the shelf, so to speak, but will be referred to again and again by the mind and the subsequent behavior to utilize whatever strategy the superstition promotes as a part of a person's life independent from reason, logic, and modern perspectives.