OCTOBER MUSING – Luck (Fortune).
Yesterday I wore my favorite blue suede shoes (yes, I have more than one pair!). They’re my favorite because they’re lucky! At least, that is what I tell myself.
My childhood was full of pessimism and as I adjusted to adulthood (my wife maintains that I’m still adjusting), I dealt with that pessimism by challenging everyone and everything that suggested how “unlucky” I was. Exhausting!
A few years ago, however, I took a different tack and began proffering evidence as to why I’m lucky or probably better said, fortunate. I would practice this daily and typically in the morning. Wow! What a difference! I am now, lucky. Is my life perfect? Ha! Far from it. But I could go on and on about my good fortune: I love my wife, my children, being a father, where I live, where I work, my dog, my friends, my shoes, etc. Where did all this fortune come from?
A long time ago Henry Ford said, “Whether you think you can, or you think you can’t–you’re right.” It turns out that there is a ton of scientific evidence to back this up. Don’t believe me? Well read this article, by Richard Wiseman, which posits that lucky people create their own good fortune because they are, “skilled at creating and noticing chance opportunities, make lucky decisions by listening to their intuition, create self-fulfilling prophecies via positive expectations, and adopt a resilient attitude that transforms bad luck into good.“
Back to yesterday: while I was reading at Grand Central Station, waiting for the 4/5 train, a man, pulling a hand truck, ran over my blue suede shoes. It was a hit and run to boot, but I barely noticed because when I looked up, a green-haired woman about my age caught my eye. She was shaking her head at the hand truck man. Not so much in disgust as in, “Can you believe it?” We made eye contact and then burst out laughing. When the train arrived, with a nod towards each other, we boarded different subway cars. At my stop in Crown Heights, there she was again. Shaking her head and laughing. She lives near me and we walked together chatting until we reached my block. We had nothing more to share than a little time and a good laugh, but I feel lucky to have met her.
From The Stoop 
I often have trouble deciding which term to use: fortunate, lucky, or blessed. Therefore, I was delighted to find someone else with that problem, tongue in cheek though his posting may be. I live in a senior retirement community that’s filled with the word “Blessed” – on clothing, in jewelry, as decor, etc. For some reason, “blessed” sounds too religious and “lucky” sounds too flippant. So I usually go with “fortunate,” which is definitely how I feel. Paraphrasing what you said, I love my husband, my children, my grandchildren, my cat, my apartment, my completed bucket list, etc. To me, that is fortune indeed! So, should I feel grateful, thankful, appreciative, obliged, or rich? An “attitude of gratitude” is my natural M.O., and for that I am thankful indeed!
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Thanks Anne! I’m also fortunate to know you and your family:-)
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