The Chances of Luck

My friend Sandra, a photographer who resides in Vancouver and has a blog called Rainforest Cottage Salon, brought up an interesting thought in her recent newsletter (which is always really thoughtful and interesting). She pondered how much of our lives is in our control and how much of it is really due to luck?

She remarked,”It’s quite fashionable to imagine that we can control so much of our lives. I mean, that’s what drives a lot of the click bait on social media, right? The 10 ways to do this or the 20 ways to do that. Adopt the flavor of the month and you’ll lose weight, avoid cancer, make money, find a mate, sell your work. “

Yet how much of life’s ebb and flow is dependent on so much of the world’s workings and the ebb and flow of the unseen. It seems both of us have a specific memory of a line from a television production that stuck with us on this subject. She says years ago, she saw “a Masterpiece period piece called “Any Human Heart about the life of Logan Mountstuart in the early 20th century. At one point his father says to him, ‘enjoy good luck when it comes your way. It’s all luck in the end’ “

I had a similar Aha moment on this subject watching a show in 1991 called Parker Lewis Can’t Lose. The amazing actor Ray Watson of My Favorite Martian fame, played the wise janitor named Augie. I remember them being on the school’s rooftop at sunset and he offers, ”You’re never down or up for too long before you’ll go the other way”. I have since tried to remember this when I am in the midst of a crisis. I always say, soon this will all be a nightmare.

Sandra concluded her thoughts by saying, “Things happen. Good luck comes our way. And that’ll end and there’ll be some bad luck too. Of course we have an impact on our lives – I can recall many times where I made good choices and some less than good choices and suffered the consequences. But there have been many times too when things have just happened. Good AND bad.

I can choose to rail against the bad luck. I can give myself all the credit for the good luck. Or how about this – why not just ride the wave, do our best and know that it’ll change again at some point. “

I am grateful for like-minded friends keeping me grounded and real. And I’m trying super hard to keep up perspective on what truly is happening at any given moment. And am going to try to hedge my bets for the Good Luck side as much as possible by giving the best of myself and my hardest most honest efforts to the world and my family . And be extremely wary of that which I really can’t control.

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