Help settle an insane disagreement: Ground vs. Stair

[fangoriagurkel]

Scenario: You believe that putting your wallet or pocketbook on the floor is bad luck. (Because if your money is on the ground, it will run away from you).

There are about 20 concrete steps in front you outdoors. You sit on step # 4, handbag on step #3.

Who’s right?

Person A- Who think you’re still on the “ground” since you’re technically outdoors and should hold your handbag in your lap.

OR

Person B- Who thinks you are “safe” from bad luck because technically the concrete stairs are raised?

[tacokick]

I think steps are ground.

[mcmel]

Ignoring the superstition, do I think stairs are the ground? Yeah, I guess.

[Roc A Bee]

The stairs are still the ground.

My SIL won’t even put her purse on the floorboard of her car. That was a new one to me!

[fortnightlily]

I am unfamiliar with that superstition so, for me, any desire not to put a purse on the ground would be about keeping it from getting dirty. The bottom of people's shoes touch the stairs, so it's the same as the ground.

[babsbunny]

Never heard of this but vote stairs are not ground because you can see ground below you. Similarly, if in an airplane, is the floor "ground"?

Maybe the point is the money can run off if not "held" somehow?

I have been drinking and will hold back my true feelings about this ridiculousness.

[puppyluv]

Concrete steps would be ground to me because they would be solid underneath. If it was wood stairs or anything suspended with an airgap, I wouldn't consider it ground.

[mrsukyankee]

Anything below my feet that is solid is ground.

[deadwing]

Superstition aside, if putting the bag on the floor inside a building is taboo, I vote outsoor steps are also taboo.

[stemmie]

This needs to be a poll

[underwaterrhymes]

I guess when it comes to superstitions, I’m of the opinion that if it’s not affecting someone else, the person with the superstition gets to decide what it means.

If it’s person A’s purse, then person A’s perception of the stairs not being the ground is correct.

If it’s person B’s purse, then person B’s perception of needing to hold the bag is correct.

If person B’s money is not currently running away from their own purse, they don’t need to worry about whether the stairs are the ground or not.

I have the people reversed. But you get my point.

[jinkies]

Stairs are ground.

[bittybomb]

I don’t like to put my purse on the ground because I don’t want it to get dirty and I put it kn surfaces in my home and office (desk, counter, console table, bed, etc) so I avoid ground at all costs.

I’d say person A is right here lol.

[dontlook]

Ground equals stairs.

[Wallflower]

I had never heard of this superstition until several years ago and now it's one I follow. Thanks, brain.

And I vote that the stairs are ground. Anything you can stand on is ground.

[blondemoment123]

A.

[sju]

Any place I can stand on to move from one point to another I would consider ground.

I am not familiar with the origin of the superstition and whether “ground” had to be adjacent to the earth, though. 

[penguingrrl]

I’ve never heard. Of that superstition, but if the floor indoors counts then stairs count.

[Patsy Baloney]

This superstition reminds me of His. May she always rest in peace.

I don’t really think of stairs as ground, but I don’t not think of them as ground either. Could go either way.

[momin2013]

I’m familiar with this superstition but I don’t ascribe to it (I do avoid putting my purse on the ground but that’s to keep it clean, i.e. I’m ok with putting it on the floor in, say, someone’s home).

With my reasoning, I’d leave my purse on a stair inside a house but I wouldn’t leave it on a stair outside, because that’s where shoes go.

I actually think there is no ‘right’ answer here - the right answer is whatever the owner of the purse in question believes, since they’re the one that will get the bad luck.

[fangoriagurkel]

Patsy Baloney Catholics Unite! Lol

( I am clearly Person A).


PS- I still think of her during my novena’s.

[lavenderblue]

Generally speaking, if I'm walking on it, it's the ground.

[rubytue]

Sept 6, 2024 5:01:31 GMT -5 deadwing said:

Superstition aside, if putting the bag on the floor inside a building is taboo, I vote outsoor steps are also taboo.

I’m here. If my office is on the second floor, does this superstition (that I’m not familiar with) mean I shouldn’t put my purse on the floor of my office? I would say it’s the same thing. 

[stemmie]

I'm kinda with Patsy Baloney,

It depends on the steps. A concrete or stone stoop-like set of steps feel more ground-like than say the wooden ones that might lead to a Classic bungalow or Victorian home front porch and entrance. Not that there's any logic in that.

[livinitup]

Answer: Concrete steps are ground.

Question for Clarity: Are these concrete steps attached to the ground? Because I am picturing a hill that has been carved out and into interval steps - and the concrete is poured into frames at each step. Or concrete slabs are moved into place at each step.

Follow-up questions: So, by this logic, is my kitchen “above the ground” because I have a basement underneath the house? I think the superstition would include putting my purse on the floor inside the house. But the basement means it’s pretty far from the ground. And what about a 20 foot high monument made of concrete? Can I put my purse on top of the monument? The monument is touching the ground just like the concrete step. But that seems “off the ground”. Is it because we walk on the steps?

I am going to have to hit control-alt-delete to reset my brain pretty soon.

[glw]

If I were outside and holding a purse and someone said, "don't put that on the ground" I would put it on the stairs.
If I were inside and someone said, "don't put that on the floor" then I would not put it on the stairs.

[tacokick]

To add to the discussion I have always heard this as not putting your purse on the floor, not ground. Not putting your purse on the ground outside is implied/assumed.

[cville]

If stairs aren't ground, I don't know what is.

[sonrisa]

Sept 6, 2024 5:52:49 GMT -5 underwaterrhymes said:

I guess when it comes to superstitions, I’m of the opinion that if it’s not affecting someone else, the person with the superstition gets to decide what it means.

I say the person with the purse (whose money it is) gets to decide. If that person set it on the stairs, all is good. 

[underwaterrhymes]

Sept 6, 2024 10:05:04 GMT -5 sonrisa said:

Sept 6, 2024 5:52:49 GMT -5 underwaterrhymes said:

I guess when it comes to superstitions, I’m of the opinion that if it’s not affecting someone else, the person with the superstition gets to decide what it means.

I say the person with the purse (whose money it is) gets to decide. If that person set it on the stairs, all is good. 

Yes, I say that further down and probably didn’t phrase the first part the best way. But also, the superstition matters here too since it sounds like both of these people share the superstition, they just disagree on where the boundaries are. The person who owns the bag gets to decide what those boundaries for their own superstition are.

I do not have this superstition. I am going to put my purse wherever I want to put my purse. I am not worried my money is going to walk away if my bag is on the ground, the stairs, the grass, the carpet, whatever.