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Saturday, June 13, 2015

Bad luck or no luck at all?



I was having a conversation with a friend about playing the lottery. I said that I have been playing for about ten years, and that if I didn't have bad luck I would not have any luck at all. It's true that I have not won anything of significane during that time, but when I do win the Euro Millions I will probably just about get all the money I have paid in it returned to me, even if I win millions.

That, of course, is a bad joke. The moment my words left my mouth I regretted uttering them. I am a positive thinker, so I was surprised I would and could say that I am unlucky. What I need to do is stop and count the ways in which good luck has been firmly on my side.

The most obvious example is that, when I was born I was given a maximum life expectancy of 47 years. That was common to all males born in my year in Bermuda. As the group of us approaced our 39th year we started dropping like flies. This was partly due to lifestyle. That ole devil rum got many of them, and a variety of costums got others. Unfortunately, my wife at the time met her premature death in her 42nd year due to complications of an illness and its treatment.

I chose to change my lifestyle completely, but still it took a massive dose of very good luck to allow me to have recently celebrated my 75th birthday.

In 2012 our house stood in the middle of a five county-wide fire that took 800 firefighters on the ground, aided by 47 air water bombers to extinguish. The fire ran right over and around our house, but never actually touched the house. That exceeds good luck and can be called a modern miracle.

I sit at the head of a clan of three children, two daughters and a son; three grandchildren, and two great grandchildren. All of them are a part of the solution to the world's problems, and that too adds to my growing good luck portfolio.

Good luck is something to be hoped for, but by its very nature is not something that can be engineered. If I am so fortunate as to win the present Euro Millions jackpot of 119 million euros, a lot of people will be very happy. I certainly don't need that much money for myself, but through a constructive social program I would use such a pot of gold to better the lives of people who could really use a break to simply be put in the position that I am in at the moment.

I am a happy, healthy, and a very lucky man indeed. I wish everyone was!

Copyright (c) 2015  Eugene Carmichael