Lucky?
Cross your fingers and knock on wood. Found a penny and picked it up. Look! Here's a four-leaf clover.
We are the lucky ones. We live and breathe and read newspapers because we and our ancestors lucked out, survived, beat the odds and reproduced.
If good luck can be inherited and genetics works the way it's supposed to then it stands to reason that we, the survivors of natural selection, are luckier than our forebears and our grandchildren will be luckier yet.
Some wee bit of the luck o' the Irish lives inside us all.
In German, we would be called Gluckskind -- children of good luck. Spaniards have suerte, the Swedes are lycklig and the French have bon chance. Being lucky is part of the human experience, as is being unlucky, and figuring out what makes the difference obsesses us all.
How can we choose the right numbers in the lottery, or pick the right stocks for investment? How do we avoid buying passage on a Titanic or being in the World Trade Center on the wrong morning? Do our choices make a difference when it comes to luck?
Some folks argue no, our fates and fortunes are predetermined and inevitable. It matters not which road we select when all roads lead to Rome. What will be will be.
Perhaps, but our experience belies that fact. What happens seems to depend on what we do, or don't do, and the choices we make seem to make a difference. We turn a switch and the light comes on. We plant a seed and a plant grows. We buy a lottery ticket and we have a chance of winning.
What we have no control over are ultimate outcomes -- the lottery numbers that will be drawn, the way the plant will grow, or what will happen in the room when the lights come on.
Does prayer affect those outcomes? Will it make a difference if we study statistics or botany or sociology before we act? Can dreams or horoscopes or psychics foretell the future? Is our luck affected by horseshoes or umbrellas or black cats?
Most of us think so, and it would be a dull world if we didn't.
Imagine living with a knowledge of what the future will bring. No surprises, no suspense, no unexpected winners or losers. No fun.
If all were predetermined or if the probable always happened or the weather forecasts were always right, there would be few decisions, little choice and no bets.
It is chance that gives us choices and luck that makes anything possible. Our prayers are answered. Science does inform our actions and our dreams do come true. It makes sense to wear green and pick shamrocks and believe in luck. We are the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow.
