Luck is always gonna break even. Everybody in the whole world is gonna get the same amount of luck. – Puggy Pearson
Are you feeling lucky?
First of all, I suspect most folks commonly do not understand the concept of luck. You must realize – as a living human being – each of us experiences luck of one sort or another every single day. Often, many, many times.
Let me emphasize, living human beings. Deceased humans have already run out of luck.
Not to be indelicate, but just let’s suppose your own personal lucky streak began when a certain spermatozoa of your father crashed into a certain ovum of your mother.
There are two kinds of luck, good and bad.
If all you experience is bad luck, you are still lucky.
My dictionary agrees. Luck is defined as “chance, thought of as a force that brings either good or bad fortune.”
An alternate definition is “the events, etc. (either favorable or unfavorable to one’s interests) that it brings.”
And luck ebbs and flows, does it not?? Think poker. You can be ahead pre-flop… behind on the flop… then somehow manage to emerge victorious on the river.
By the way, you will invariably hear complaints from a weaker hand which flopped good, then lost on a later card. Something to keep in mind – LIFE LESSON – you don’t get paid in the middle of the hand. It doesn’t matter where you are in the middle but where you stand at the end.
I was reminded of this ebb and flow by a story I saw recently in the St. Petersburg Times (Florida.) A reasonably handsome Caucasian male American (2-4xGoodLuck) is drunk (no luck involved perhaps) and hurt (maybe 1xBadLuck.)
Somebody sees him (1xGL) and calls 911 (1xGL.)
Emergency Services is told the victim is near (1xGL) the fire station.
Two rescuers (socialism??) open the garage bay doors, turn on the emergency lights and pull out of the fire station.
And run over the guy (1xBadLuck, minimum) they were sent to rescue in their 10-ton (1xBL) truck.
Apparently, nobody thought to explain just how nearby was the victim. That is real, real lucky.
But not good.
Two days later authorities were still trying to figure out how that homeless drunk came to be so lucky.
“There’s just so many variables that were involved,” explained the assistant fire chief, “that any other combination would not have resulted in what occurred.”
Isn’t that just another way of saying LUCK?
Turns out this particular station has multiple buildings with three separate addresses. The complex has nine different garage bays facing two different streets. So, the victim was about 8-1 not to get hit by an exiting rescue vehicle.
He’s as likely to get run over as you are to hit a set on the river.
If you only play one hand all day. Think Lotto if you don’t play cards.
Let’s call the victim Ten Allen Lenox. Because that’s his name.
Ten Allen Lenox survived, though he’s still not feeling too perky. Good luck, I guess.
To add insult to injury, police actually took the trouble – how does it matter? – to administer a blood-alcohol test to Ten. Turns out he blew – painfully, I’m guessing – 0.46. Nearly six times the 0.08 level at which a driver is considered legally impaired.
Lucky for him, he wasn’t driving.