I'd rather be lucky than good

I have grown up (still working on it!) listening to my dad say, "I'd rather be lucky than good." Often, we say it with a grin, either to indicate that we're not quite as smart as someone else seems to think or, alternatively, to suggest gently that we're not quite as smart as we ourselves think.

Most of us would rather be lucky than good; luck suggests that the universe is arranging itself to suit us. Good suggests that we are working hard to accomodate ourselves to the universe which is not nearly as much fun. Good sounds like hard work with an undertone of virtue. Lucky suggests not only that we are ready to enjoy ourselves; it suggests the world is ready to play with us.

How do we get lucky? Intent helps. In order to get lucky, we have to think lucky: we have to be ready for the opportunities that come our way. In order to get lucky, we have to be confident that whether we direct our attention inside or outside, into the past or around the present, we will find something worth seeing and enjoy it. It's not that we need to deserve our luck (that would smack of being good), it's that we have to accept it.

Each of us is blessed with as much luck as we are willing to let into our lives. It's packaged in all those processes that guide our words and actions before we have time to think about them. Much less time to be good.

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