Fortunately..

Some people are extraordinarily fortunate..

This good fortune, it must be clarified, is something completely separate from that much-touted and misused word, 'luck', but the difference is subtle and needs putting in context. The Oxford dictionary defines luck as success or failure apparently brought by chance rather than through one's own actions, whilst according to the Cambridge definition, fortune is chance and the way it affects your life. One could argue that fortune, luck and chance are all equally arbitrary. That's fair enough but for the purposes of this piece I am drawing a line, between luck on the one side and fortune on the other.

"I hear people talk about luck a lot. Straight up – luck doesn’t exist. If you believe in luck, then you believe either:
(1) some people consistently defy probability, or,
(2) some things aren’t a result of cause and effect."
- Sebastian Marshall

Like our esteemed Mr. Marshall, I simply do not believe in luck. Aside from cursory use, I find the term is overused and wrongly applied to all manner of happenstance in life, from the mundane to the inexplicable. Fortune, however, seems to me to be rooted in chance - a quantifiable, measurable, tangible concept which one can apply logic and reason to, in order to analyse and understand its significance and the effect it has on things. Science and mathematics have established a whole world of knowledge on the understanding of chance, which is referred to as the laws of probability. Indeed, our very systems of governance and the implementation of policies as such is dictated largely by the nature of chance and probability.

In keeping with the logical, tangible route of understanding, I guess there are two angles from which one can assess an individual's level of good fortune in life. The internal qualities they possess which contribute to their success in the attainment of sort-after things, and the external factors which provide them with the means to get them. So if someone has self-confidence, high self-esteem, can maintain their sense of well-being, and possesses the ability to remain grounded, focused and determined to achieve their goals, they are pretty fortunate. Combine this with being in the right place at the right time when it comes to opportunities, having the material means to achieve things, such as money and resources, and knowing the right people to help achieve said goals, and one could say these individuals are indeed very fortunate.

Fortune favours the brave, right?

Well, yes and no. It is true that the internal qualities mentioned above, along with many others necessary to get along in life and achieve our goals, hopes and dreams can be learned, nurtured in our thinking, adopted into our mindset and practiced in daily living. However, this has to be weighed up against whatever physical, psychological and/or emotional limitations may well be present in the individual. It is also true that gaining money and resources, meeting and influencing the right people, and knowing when is the right time and place to actualise our plans are all achievable through hard work and dedication. The crucial thing here is to what extent a person, given their particular starting point, has the internal qualities required to progress, is able to learn and adopt the essential additional ones ad-hoc, and exactly what level of external resources and opportunities are actually available given the limitations of their physical, geographical, and socio-economic situation.

Many clichés echo through my mind at this point. 'If you put your mind to it, you can be capable of anything'. 'The world is your oyster'. 'Dream big'. 'Reach for the stars'. It can become almost nauseating hearing with such frequency these well-meaning but ultimately rather empty 'affirmations' being banded about, often by people in the media and such, who have obviously already achieved fame, fortune or whatever glamorous lifestyle is being touted as most desirable in life. The problem is, when you try to apply these 'life lessons' to your own goals you often find you have set yourself up for a fall. You can become very deflated and disillusioned, often coming to the swift conclusion that you just aren't that fortunate. Worse still, it is possible to end up in the bitter and jaded world of believing (often with very just cause) that no matter how much hard work and dedication you put in, the odds are just too stacked against your ever amounting to much.

"Don't try to understand everything. Because sometimes it's not meant to be understood, but to be accepted." - unknown

There are two other factors which come into play where fortune is concerned though. They are highly intangible, pretty illogical, not quantifiable through science or reason (thus far anyway) and very hard to explain beyond the realms of personal anecdotal experience. Here, we delve into the murky but rather wonderful world of 'mystery'. As immune as I try to stay from anything which can come under the umbrella term of magical thinking, there are two 'forces', for want of a better term, which have been at play in my life for as long as I can remember, helping and nurturing me (and others) to get through times of hardship, to achieve personal goals and to move onwards and upwards in life. They have both become as concrete in my mind as any concept provable by science, and are just as evidence-based as anything else one might mention, even if that evidence is purely anecdotal.

The first is karma, the Buddhist-originated spiritual principle of cause and effect, where intent and actions of an individual (cause) influence the future of that individual (effect). Karma in my life has always been absolutely apparent, present and in full effect - so much so that I can absolutely relate to what John Lennon was referring to in his song, 'Instant Karma'. I have never had to wait any time at all for proof that karma comes back to slap me in the face, should I stray from the good path. It is a force for good, which governs my thoughts and actions as a matter of course, framed by the overarching rule that when I project good out into the world, good things come back, and exactly the same with the bad.

The second is serendipity. Webster’s Dictionary defines serendipity as “the gift of finding valuable or agreeable things not sought for.” The key here is 'gift'. Serendipity is in every 'happy accident' that happens in life. Any time you find an answer without actually looking, discover something new and wonderful and beneficial to your life without trying, or are in the process of trying to solve something and find the solution takes you in a whole different direction, you have been given the gift of a serendipitous event. Best-selling author Scott Peck in his book 'The Road Less Travelled' has this to say - "serendipitous events occur to all of us, but frequently we fail to recognise their serendipitous nature; we consider such events quite unremarkable, and subsequently we fail to take full advantage of them." - Peck, M. Scott. (1978). The Road Less Travelled. p. 257-258.

So are you a person of good fortune, or not? Do you believe in luck, good or bad? One thing is for certain, chance is real - and whether evident in the minutia of your daily life or extractable from any experience you can recall where 'things just happened' - sometimes we can be fortunate and other times unfortunate. Perhaps it is merely our perspective on our lives, or other people's perspectives, that govern whether we consider a person to be one or the other. One thing I do know for sure is that sometimes I reflect on my life and feel pretty unfortunate, and see other people as really very fortunate indeed. It usually ends up with my feeling hopeless..

Important to remember then, that even the word hopeless has 'hope' in it.


Copyright ©2018 Richard C. Greenlow. All rights reserved.