I begin to suspect that there really is such a thing as luck. Some people are lucky. I'm not talking about people who make good choices and seem to lead charmed lives. I'm talking about people who, say, buy a raffle ticket and then win a sofa. Or go to Las Vegas and come home with $500 in their pockets. The people who actually win lotteries--those kinds of people.
I think it's safe to say that I've never won a raffle in my entire life. However, I have a friend who always wins prizes in raffles. I remember sitting in the audience of some fundraising project or another, waiting for the raffle prize announcements, and her boyfriend told me she would win something, because she just always does. And sure enough, she did. She won a big glossy book. She's just one of those people who wins things.
So what's up with that? I read an article a while back--your typical "there-is-a-rational-explanation-for-everything" scientific article--which claimed that there is no such thing as luck. It's just that some people consider themselves lucky, and so, even though they have no greater or lesser chance of winning something than anybody else, they tend to overvalue the wins as opposed to the losses.
That sounds so rational. But it just doesn't quite explain the situation of my friend. After all, I would consider myself a pretty lucky person in the grand scheme of things: nice opportunities have come my way, I'm not dodging bullets in a war ravaged nation, etc. But I don't win anything. Does that have to do with my perceptions of myself? Or is it simply a bald fact that if I buy a raffle ticket, I can be reasonably certain that my name won't be drawn, because this is what experience has taught me? Whereas my friend sits there, confidently expecting to win a TV set, a trip to the Caribbean, whatever. And then she does.
Yep, I think there may very well be such a thing as luck.
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2 comments:
I wonder who feels luckier, the person who faithfull buys lottery tickets for years and finally wins the big kazoo, or the person who, like your friend wins the sofas and TVs along the way? I do neither, and yet feel both lucky and fortunate. A must see is Woody Allen's latest, Match Point. It's about just that.
Right after I wrote this I saw a preview for some new movie with that skinny girl....what's her name....Lindsay Lohan. It's apparently about how this super lucky girl somehow magically changes luck with an unlucky guy--now he has all the luck and she is a walking accident. A funny follow-up, I thought.
But yeah, I do feel really lucky, even if I've never managed to win a free microwave in my life....!
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