Some people will say that they’re lucky because they have a bunch of great friends, or a really good job. I’m not sure that is really luck, because the person has some involvement in them - being easy to get along with, hard worker, etc.
So I want to know what advantages that are TOTALLY based on luck?
Here’s my partial list:
I was born in Canada. Obviously, I had nothing to do with this, and I think I’m probably way better off than if I had been born in Cambodia, or Bosnia, or Ethiopia, for example.
Regardless of my size, I always fit clothing pretty well perfectly - right length, right hip waist ratio, etc. This has nothing to do with being fit or eating a healthy diet - I know plenty of people that are more fit and healthy than I am that can’t buy stuff off the rack that fits - they have to get items shortened, or the waist taken in, or whatever. I spend $0 on alterations - that’s pure luck.
Being reasonable smart. Sure, I read books and try to learn stuff, but that has nothing to do with the raw material I was given - that’s total luck.
There are more, but I’ll leave it at that for now.
So - what advantages to you have that you did abolutely nothing to earn or deserve?
Being in the States…it was a pure chance that my aunt from America adopted me and not my uncle in India. They were both ready and willing. I’d be happy, no doubt, but probably already married and with a littler of rugrats now. shudder
I took a job as a store clerk at a Mailboxes Etc. knockoff. It just happened that my boss was close friends with a private investigator who hired me on when he needed some help. And it just happened that the biggest case he was involved in for several years required working closely with some major law firms in Downtown LA. One of those firms ended up hiring me on after I worked closely with them at trial. (This all took place over the span of several years, but you get the idea.)
I’d never had any interest in pursuing a legal career. I’m reasonably smart and have a fairly varied skill set, but the fact that I landed a great job in this industry had nothing to do with any effort on my part. It was all about the contacts that other people had.
I’m a firm believer in the Horatio Alger* model: that we ultimately succeed because of lucky breaks.
Well, there was a lot of luck involved in getting my novel published:
I happened to be marketing it during a science fiction boom.
I made an acquaintance of another writer at a science fiction convention. An agent invited that writer to dinner; the writer invited me. The agent took on my novel.
When the editor read it, he was home sick in bed, looking for something to read. He also was a sucker for barroom scenes, and my novel just happened to start with a barroom scene.
(Admittedly, some of this involved talent, but it was luck that got the book to the right person at the right time.)
My current job was pure luck, too: I was fired from my previous job two weeks before the job was advertised. I was not even looking until I lost the job; if I had been fired two weeks later, I would not have gotten hired here.
I met my wife in a writing class. While I was there, my marriage collapsed (she left me); if I hadn’t taken that class (and it was iffy, since I wasn’t sure I wanted to spend the money), we never would have crossed paths.
*Yes, that was the message in his books: his characters would work hard and diligently, but ultimately, they would only succeed when some fortunate occurance happened that allowed them to show off their character (e.g., he’d stop the runaway carriage that carried the boss’s daughter, and get a better job.
I’ve always been vaguely grateful for the fact that I’m right handed. Lefties have to put up with a fair degree of day to day inconvenience that I never even have to think about.
This is undisputedly luck-of-the-draw. I was born with a papal indulgence. My Grandfather’s brother was awarded it, and it encompasses his immeadiate family, and all their descendants for seven generations. At least that’s what I’m told. It’s in Latin, and I can’t read it.
Being born in the US in the late 20th century (had I been born 400 years earlier I probably would’ve died in childhood or became a miserable farmer who was drunk all the time). Coming from an upper middle class family (meaning statistically chances are good that I will earn more income than most people and that I can rely on family for money). Having really good parents and good siblings, good family in general. Being born in a low crime part of the world that was stable. The list is probably endless.
Plus I am tall, white and male. It may be chauvanistic but it is true that that is the demographic to be.
Born in America, endowed with above-average intelligence. Hard-working and loving parents. My parents also did not buy into the notion that females could not do anything they wanted to do. Born in an age when my extreme nearsightedness is correctable. The somewhat twisted leg I was born with was fixable. Had I been born in, say, the middle ages, I’d have been a squinty-eyed half-cripple.
I have awesome, kickass parents who, despite some flaws, never made me feel less than really, really wanted. Also, considering the conservative culture I come from, they are very liberal and both big feminists and their first concern was me getting a great education, not getting married. I guess they didn’t encourage me to do “anything” I wanted and there was definitely a slant towards something very bourgeois, but they cared to see me as more than a future wife and taught me that women can be just as good as men if they put their mind to it.
Also, I guess I have to thank them for not giving up on the idea of having kids. After their first child passed away they were infertile for many years and had pretty much given up until my mom got preggers, miraculously, twice in very close succession (not recommended but they took what they got).
My sister and I are best friends. I know not all siblings have the relationship I have.
I’m stumbling through life randomly picking careers and it’s turning out okay for me. Friends who did the same thing (wandered into law) have had huge disasters but I’m doing alright.
I look trustworthy. Maybe it’s not luck, maybe it’s because I am trustworthy, but I think it’s really just the luck of the draw, because even when I’ve made a real effort to look like a bad girl (college) every one treated me like the ivory girl.
My entire successful adult life can be traced back to the fact that I was a huge Blur fan since 1994. I was 16 then. It was all luck from there. There were some hard times, but I was lucky to have those, too, because if they hadn’t happened, I wouldn’t be here today.
Granted, right now I am a simple homemaker, however, the world really is my oyster - I can go in any direction I want from here.
The man I married hid a secret from me, until he was sure I really loved him and wanted to be with him forever: he’s loaded. His whole family is. We aren’t the richest folk, but we’re doing damn well - and it’s slowly but steadily increasing.
We’re having a house practically handed to us. Not free, but at a very steep discount, since it’s from his father and all, and in a very nice Seattle neighbourhood.
I actually traced this all back one time in one of my posts here, but I’m too lazy to look for it. Basically, everything good about my situation can be blamed on Blur.
I don’t listen to them as often as I used to, except for a few B-sides in my playlist. But I do like Gorillaz - maybe that will be responsible for the good stuff that happens in the future.
I could be very, very wrong… but being raised Catholic, I remember hearing it was something along the lines of buying the Church’s forgiveness for all sins - past and future. You could buy your dead relatives and future relatives a place in heaven, too.
Basically, if you gave the church enough money, you could live your life as sinful as you wished, and you’d be forgiven. What a deal!
However, I may have gotten some facts wrong, or even the whole thing wrong, so ImaginalDisc will have to clarify, or someone who knows the true meaning of “papal indulgence” - I’m just conjuring up memories of Sunday School whispers and questions asked to our teachers.
Similarly, the entirety of the past eighteen months of my life (which, despite some sucky events such as breaking my leg, has been the best period of my life) is a direct result of being a Doper which, through a convoluted series of events, can be attributed to being a former professional wrestling fan.
Then there’s being a white male in 21st Century America. By dint of having pale skin and a penis while living when and where I do, I catch more breaks than most.
I’ve never been any good at fighting, nor interested in getting better at it. However, I am tall and broad-shouldered, and when I try to talk my way out of an ugly situation, the other guy considers my size and decides we all can just get along. I just happened to be born in a lucky cove in the gene pool.
