ONE OF THOSE MOMENTS

You ever have one of those moments where, by the Grace of God, you found yourself very lucky? Or maybe something just worked out for you because of some tiny slight of hands by luck, or by the gods, or by fate? Here's an example: Yesterday I had gotten back from the store, and had some bags in my hand, coming in through the garage, and I stopped at the fridge in the garage to put a few things in there before coming inside with the rest of my things. I was bent over at the knees and waist and in my right hand I still had a few Kroger bags. I was using my left hand to put the bottles on the shelves. And just as I stood up, my new Blackberry slipped out of my jacket pocket and right into one of the bags still in my hand. If the bags hadn't caught the phone, it would've hit the garage floor and shattered into a million tiny pieces. But I lucked out, and it landed in a soft, cozy bag containing shrimp and butter. So by the Grace of God, my phone survived. Seems sort of insignificant huh? We'll see. Now then. Since fate, and luck and predestination and matters of the like are some of my favorite topics, I'll say right here that I do believe in luck, both good and bad. Some things happen for a reason and some don't have any reason at all. I'm not here to explain luck. I take my luck any way I can get it, and I never bite the hand that feeds me. And when bad luck happens to me, I try not to ask why, because when good luck happens, I never ask why and to question only the bad and not the good seems a bit self centered and narcissitic. I have been known to say "I believe we create our own luck" in some overly confident scenarios, but that's not really luck, rather just a cute saying. Wikipedia defines LUCK as this:

Luck or fortuity is a belief in good or bad fortune in life caused by accident or chance which happens beyond a person's control.^[1][2][3] Luck is significant in everyday life,^[4][5] as well as Morality,^[6] Epistemology,^[7][8] Business^[9][10] and other endeavors.

Luck is pervasive in common speech.^[11] Typical use includes "Good Luck!" to wish a blessing on someone, or describing a misfortune, as in "it was just bad luck." There are many expressions and quotes about Luck.^[12][13]

Cultural views of Luck vary from faith to superstition. For example, the Romans believed in the embodiment of Luck as the Goddess Fortuna,^[14] while the atheist Daniel Dennett believes that "luck is mere luck" rather than a property of a person or thing.^[15]

So, I'll take the luck, both good and bad. Good fortune, bad luck, it's all the same. Maybe they're all just accidents that either happened or didn't happen.

A month or two ago, I had just dropped off Sarah at the sitter, when I came to a stop sign, and i was fiddling with my GPS and I just went ahead and pulled through the intersection, slowly. But my mind was on the GPS and not on the road, and just as I got through the intersection, a pickup truck flew past me, waaaay too close. If I had been paying attention at all, I would never have pulled out into that intersection. My spidey senses were not working and it almost cost me dearly. I guess thats good luck.

One time when I was coming home from a party in Oxford, I was riding with my buddy Mark Smith. Smitty was known for his big black Trans Am, and he loved to drive fast. We were on a country road and we were going about 130 mph. It was on a long stretch of highway and it was about 1:30 in the morning. We had Guns N Roses blaring at full blast when some guy decided to pull out of his driveway about a quarter mile ahead of us. I felt the car slow rapidly, but i saw it wasn't going to be in time. Just as I noticed this, we the car started turning to the left, but was still sliding forward. When the speed came down a little, and Mark eased up on the brake, we shot off the road at about a hundred miles an hour, down an embankment about 6 feet, and slid sideways for a hundred feet before coming to a full rest in the middle of a cornfield. the car had spun around once or twice but never flipped, never rolled, never impacted any stationary objects. We were completely unharmed, the car had some busted fenders, but it made it alive too. So, what was that? Good luck? Bad luck? Good fortune resulted from bad luck? or from bad timing?

When I as around ten, my brother had shown me that if you turn a circlular saw upside down, and locked it in the table vice on the work table in the basement, you could use it as a table saw, and slide wood across it. He was much more mechanical than I ever was or ever will be. So I tried to set up the saw when he wasn't around, and somehow I did something wrong, and cut a big gash in my thumb, right through the thumb nail, and the wood shot out of my hands at a million miles per hour and i cut my forearm on the saw. This all happened in about a milisecond. I could've killed myself. I could've died right there. But I didn't.

So, here's where I "think maybe". Maybe life is more about good fortune and bad fortune, more than anyone gives it credit to be so. Maybe life isn't as calculating as we thought it could be. Maybe my life is unlike yours in this capacity. Maybe I have no control, never have. Maybe my existience has just been a continuous bounce from one thing to the next, where things could have gone either way, and for no real rhyme or reason, they outcomes just came as that might. And so twisting through time was I, with no real good luck or bad luck. I picture my life as sort of that cartoon where the guy slips from one cloud, falls to the next cloud, bounces to the next cloud, then lands in a haystack on the ground, then steps in a puddle, and then on a rake which smacks him in the face, and as he stubles, he walks through a stone quarry and gets covered in dust, and while walking out of the dust cloud rubbing his eyes, he misses being hit by a speeding truck my only inches and then takes one more step and slips down through the open manhole cover. That's my life. I think maybe I like it that way. I think at least i keep moving ya know? I think maybe it's better than the guy who doesn't land on a cloud. or maybe more exciting than the guys life that never gets to explore a manhole. maybe more interesting than the guy who never almost gets hit by a truck. I mean, what do those guys have to write about on their blogs? And I also think maybe thats not it at all, but that's ok. It's ok because at least i thought about these things. At best i wrote about these thoughts. And I think maybe I've cause you to think a little after having read all this nonsense. And if I'm the one bumbling through life, time and space, and you're reading about it, what does that make you? Lucky? Unlucky? hmmm. I've always believed that a man makes his own luck....

Good night now.