Posted by DR on July 12, 2005 at 14:20 [67.83.76.91]
In Reply to: Re: About Luck posted by Ann on July 12, 2005 at 13:37
Hi Ann,
Yes, I completely understand. "Fingers crossed" gave me the sense that you were speaking in a religious context -- that you feel *blessed.*
Funny that you wrote, "submitting it to God" because I've long been of the opinion that we're all submissives (every last one of us) to life itself. That life beats us down through its hardships, but the challenge in life is to be able to bend in the wind -- to accept our smallness, our flaws, our limitations and our finality. That is -- by accepting that I'm not invincible, I learn the value of community and cooperation. By accepting that I'm flawed, I see the value of learning from my mistakes. And accepting death, I learn to cherish life for all that it is. :)
So yes, I understand your POV completely. In fact, all of life is a mixture of work and fortune. A bus could run me over tomorrow -- ending all of my life's hard work. Life has a certain randomness, and when we find something that feels rare and perfect, we cannot explain why we now possess it -- why we didn't before -- and what cosmic justice brought it to me instead of someone else.
I understand these things, but I cannot lend them credence to shape my life. I neither depend upon fortune, nor give it credit for improving upon life's odds. Perhaps we both agree on this.