During a conversation recently, the word "lucky" was mentioned and you know how it is when your mind latches onto a word and throws it around awhile in your thought process. I couldn’t help but explore the word a bit more. Here are a few thoughts from my musing.
You take a coin and eagerly scratch the coating off the small ticket that holds awaiting monetary promises. You turn to the tv channel that broadcasts the regular ceremony and apprehensively watch as each numbered ball is chosen and displayed. You write your name, address and phone number on the small form and drop it into the slotted box atop the table next to the shiny, four-wheeled marvel and hope that you’re the one who will soon be its owner. Temptation is everywhere, so close and yet so far away and all depending on numbers...on chance...on the luck of the draw.
What makes one person lucky and another not? Does luck swirl around and land like a deflated balloon on the person nearest it? Or is luck magnetic and some people happen to have more minerals in their systems that draw it closer to them? Is luck dependent on genetic ancestry or is being lucky a learned quality?
Is being lucky one of those good/bad things? Is being lucky one of those good/bad things? (Bob won the lottery, but now suddenly, everyone is his long-lost cousin with their hand out.) Can one be burdened by too much luck? ("What’s the matter, friend? You look troubled." "Indeed!" you say, as you undo the strap and slip off the heavy backpack you’ve been carrying around. "That luck sure has been weighing me down lately.")
Why do we acknowledge "being lucky" as being in it’s positive form? There are, afterall, two types of luck -- good AND bad. Is it wishful thinking that causes us to connect "being lucky" with being fortunate rather than being unfortunate, as in if we don’t talk about the bad, maybe it’ll go away? Is bad luck ever good luck in disguise, like a bunch of ingredients that doesn’t appear appetizing at first but becomes a five-star dessert after it’s baked? Is Garth Brook’s song true when he sings, "Some of God’s little gifts are unanswered prayers."?
But then if bad luck can morph itself, is there a detecting device that can alert a person to it’s true reality? ("Yes, see there...it’s bad luck...the meter hand is going into the bad zone!") Can we buy such a device at Wal-Mart?
Do we make our own good luck by socializing more and knowing more people, as discussed in Richard Wiseman’s book, "The Luck Factor"? Afterall, we do have more power and control over our lives and the circumstances in it than we might realize.
Some people state that if it wasn’t for bad luck they’d have no luck at all. Could this be so? Do they perhaps need more minerals in their system or an uncloaking mechanism to be able to decipher the bad luck from what may actually be good in disguise? One thing is certain, we can’t leave it to 4-leaf clovers, charms and horseshoes to do all the work. Besides, what iron setting do you use when you press your luck?
