SO I ASK YOU, DO YOU FEEL LUCKY?

I have never considered myself a lucky person. Fortunate, blessed, a possessor of many great experiences and opportunities…for sure, but lucky, as per the textbook definition and the whole four leaf clover thing, not really no. My husband pointed this out the other night when we were discussing wining the lottery. We do this a lot [go on admit it, you do too]; we ruminate on what we’d spend it on, who we’d give money to, who we wouldn’t give money to and hence have to change our phone number. You know, all that pointless yet very hopeful thinking one does when they ponder what ‘could be’ in life. So anyway, as we were discussing our 145 million potential windfall and were looking at enormous properties online with indoor swimming pools, he pointed out that as we’re not 'lucky' people, the odds of us winning are even steeper than the usual odds. I’m not a statistician, but I know that’s not good. In fact, I’ve been told I’m more likely to be struck by lightning.

In fact, merely being a screenwriter confirms it for me that I’m devoid of luck. Trust me, spend as many years as I have in that business and you’ll know you’re not only unlucky, but you’re totally nuts for walking down the garden path. In addition to this, I don’t win contests, lights and sirens don’t start blaring at the supermarket cause I’m the millionth customer (in my case, it would more likely be that the King had stolen a loaf of bread and started eating it sending the security team into overdrive) and to date I haven’t won the lottery [as we are a capitalist society, luck has a great deal to do with obtaining money and prizes apparently]. 

All this luck talk aside, I suppose being lucky doesn’t mean you’re technically unlucky. I mean luck can strike in many forms that may not always be so apparent. Perhaps one is bathed in luck on a daily basis but isn’t always aware that the 'stars o luck' have aligned for them, i.e. you miss your bus, but that bus crashes into a telephone pole and yet your bus gets you to where you need to go. Dramatic, yes, but you get the idea. Perhaps without even knowing it, I’m the luckiest person alive purely because I escape danger everywhere I go and don’t even know it. Somehow I doubt this, but it does make me feel better. 

The funny thing is, I’m not sure I even believe in luck. Sometimes I think luck is just good old fashioned coincidence dressed up as something else that feels more magical, if you will. Or at least chosen. Hence, I am one of the lucky ones. I suppose we like to slap the lucky label onto people’s foreheads purely to emphasize its existence and make us feel like we have a shot at it. ‘Well gosh the neighbor is so lucky to have just won a new car, maybe by sheer proximity that luck will rub off on me.’ Not to mention, it’s nice to think that luck doesn’t have a shelf life or isn’t necessarily set in stone, ie. luck can turn faster than the wind. This week’s lack of luck could mean that next week I’ll beat six diseases and win an all expenses trip to Mauritius (with a fully catered kids wing; the King likes to eat). I suppose that could also go the other way, which could mean that after winning the lottery as I’m making my way out of the bank I could be struck by lightning. See how slippery this little four -etter word is!

Whatever luck is or isn’t, you do come across those people in life where things always just seem to work out for them; they get the job, the girl, the property everyone is vying for…they win the contests and always seem to be in the right place at the right time. Maybe that’s not luck. Maybe that’s just annoying.