Prohibitions

I’ve never been a big fan of being told I can’t do something. That’s exactly what prohibitions in the Letter of the Year are about, though…

One time, there was a prohibition against wearing red shirts. Lucky for me, I almost never wear that color. I prefer blues, greens, and more subtle earth-tones. It was a mild annoyance at times, though, when I’m out of clothes and my only option is to wear a red shirt or toss on something wrinkled that was stuffed in a corner somewhere…

Still, it wasn’t anything too bad.

There hasn’t been anything in there yet that I wasn’t able to give up… at least for a year. But I worry sometimes about my Ita, once I make ocha.

I’m already a bit annoyed that I won’t be able to eat pumpkin once I crown Oshun. Not that I eat a lot of it right now, but at least I have the option.

With my luck, my Ita will probabily specifically say, “No Mountain Dew”… Ok, maybe not, but I’m sure there will be something on there that I’m not going to want to give up.

So what happens if you go against a prohibition?

Well, lightning won’t strike you down dead — at least not usually.

It isn’t about punishment for disobeying some arbitrary rules.

In a way, prohibitions are sort of like their own form of Ebo. You sacrifice eating/drinking something specific, performing a certain action, etc. Doing so helps you avoid certain issues. That’s the way I view it, at least.

I’m usually pretty good about doing ebos and adhering to prohibitions, but I’d like to share with you a recent incident where I wasn’t so well-behaved…

They say the way to a man’s heart is through his stomach and I believe it… Every once and a while, I take a break from home-cooked meals and go out to eat. Whether it’s escargot, rack of lamb, or a nice juicy steak, I know how to treat my taste-buds right. Unfortunately, one of the foods listed as a no-go this year is one that I find hard to resist…

Not seeing any other options that seemed more appealing than this forbidden food, I went ahead and ordered it. I figured, what’s the harm, right?

The food was great and the night went by without an issue.

The next day, though, while backing out of a parking space in my 3-month-old car, someone else was backing up at the same time. We were both in the others’ blind-spot and our vehicles gave one another a nice little “love tap”. Since we were going at a fairly slow speed and hit the brakes as soon as it happened, the damage was minimal. My bumper got dented in a bit and some of the paint was scraped off. The other woman’s car apparently had similarly minor issues and drove off. I got an estimate to fix the damage and it’s about $500-600.

Was this the indirect result of me ignoring the prohibition? Maybe. Maybe not.

No matter how tasty the food was, it certainly wasn’t worth the cost of repairs to the car, though.

I think, next time, I’ll just have a salad