Capitol Hill Blue Forums Misc. Topics General Stuff How Much Control Do We Have?

A few days ago MA Republican wrote something that pushed a button. Specifically, he wrote: "Luck is not some nebulous thing that just happens, it is something that comes to you because you create the environment for it to grow." I responded unpleasantly, then started to mull. Why was his statement such a trigger to me? I'll have to answer that personally.

First, let me state that I consider myself lucky in several important ways. Except for being the fat kid at school, I had a good childhood. Money was there for what was needed, as well as the yearly literature-inspired Madame Alexander doll. There was no abuse, that I remember. My parents took me to Disneyland he second weekend it was open. All those things I put into the area of luck. I had done nothing to deserve them; I simply arrived.

So let's turn to two other areas I believe are affected by luck: my writing and health.

Health first. By the time I was a young adult I realized the part being pudgy had played throughout my childhood and teen years. I determined I wouldn't follow the same path as an adult and I became diet-conscious. Oh, not in any bad way. I avoided both bulimia and anorexia. I ate healthy and was finally thin. (Never made it to gaunt, my true goal, but that was probably good.) Also motivating my eating habits was the fact that diabetes runs rampant in my family. So, there I am in my mid-thirties: healthy, slim, and feelin' good. So what happens then? MS happens. Tell me that the arrival of MS was anything besides a "nebulous thing that just happen(ed)." Or explain to me how I had created an "environment for it to grow." Just curious.

And the writing: For a few years longer than I've had MS, I've taken a stab at writing professionally. I've had dribbles of success—three novels published and over twenty plays produced in various forms and locations—but I haven't "made it." Teaching and other jobs have supported me.

Still, for the writing I've prepared. I study the craft. I learn techniques in classes and workshops. I write every day. I send completed works out (in whatever form the receiver requests), and they come back. I send them out again; next thing you know, they've made their way back into my mailbox. Why? I ask. The most reasonable response is that I'm not good enough. Countering that, I've had publishers, producers and established writers say that I write beautifully. Is success in writing, like the arrival of MS, a "nebulous thing" for which no one can prepare?

Maybe I'm going through all this mulling because I'm jealous that nothing has ever thrown MA out of his complacency. How comforting that must be and how much I envy it

All in all though, I'm still left with a question: how much of our lives are under our control? I'm guessing MA's answer would be that everything is. Who agrees? Who doesn't? (Please, back up your argument with specifics. That request comes from the ex-techer in me.)

Great. Another teacher who requires you to "show your work".

I wish I had an answer for your question. I don't. Sometimes I think what happens to us is luck (or misfortune, depending on the nature of the event) and sometimes I think we can control it. But every now and then when I pick either/or, something happens that proves me wrong.

Martha,

I believe that luck begins with "Circumstance of Birth".

With the above being said. There are so many variable at play.

I think it is virtually impossible for anybody escape adversity in their life. However, we always observe others who we believe experience less adversity than ourselves.

BUT...IMO, given the right physical, mental, and emotional attributes, linked with innate environmental conditions that have built in advantages, then I say that there is an elevated chance to experience more positive, unforeseen events than many others.

As we all know, there are no guarantees in life regardless of circumstance birth or station in life...earned or inherited.

A Stretch of An Example

Removing "no guarantees" matrix...if a person is born into or with:

1) a family with an above average socio-economic ranking who resides in a country where opportunity for prosperity is more prevalent;

2) an above average intellect;

3) void of any remarkable mental or physical disabilities;

4) above average appearance;

5) above average interpersonal skills...

Well, I think you can see where I'm going with the above list of characteristics. If all of the above exists...then I think that a person might be proned to experience events that "appear" to be construed as good luck substantially more than others.

Unsolicited hardships or misfortune...AKA adversity in one person's life, might be a used as tool to experience something beneficial or to create prosperity in another person's life. But, I don't equate this as good luck. I equate it to the will to endure through conscious perseverance.

I think our nature is judge people by their outside. In other words, we assume another person's well being, their happiness, their desires to achieve, their ability to rise above adversity, etc., simply by our visual perceptions of others.

We believe that a lot of folks live on the greener side of the fence than ourself.

Good luck may be in the pocket of the beholder. Or a person's health, or level of happiness, or sense of spirituality...I don't know.

To me...the way I define good luck: Good luck would be relative to the value somebody places on an unexpected event, acquisition, or state of being.

I'll jump in here. I think that like the nature vs. nurture arguments, there is some truth in both. We start in the world in purely nature mode, and that start is completely a matter of luck. As the saying goes, we don't choose our parents, nor do we get to choose the environment into which we start our lives. Those circumstances, however, circumscribe the opportunities that we come into contact with during the remainder of our lives. Some people are lucky, being born into privilege or great circumstances. These individuals rarely appreciate the reality of their luck, believing that everyone has the same opportunities. They don't.

Think of it like rolling dice. If you have only one die, you have a one in six chance of rolling any particular number. Call it success. With two dice, your chances increase. A dozen dice, and you can almost guarantee rolling at least one success. Now, it is possible that you can roll a success with only one die, but the odds are against you. Convert dice to dollars, and you have a pretty good analog for what goes on in the real world.

I have thought about this question ever since I engaged a Catholic priest in a "free will" debate as a teenager. I have written on the topic and in the end, I don't know.

But my inquiry led me to question the very foundations upon which your question rests. Inevitably I was led to poke into the fact that we are having a discussion now as though the words make a difference.

I know that is "of course" to us as humans, but reflect upon the fact it is only so for humans. My tentative thesis is based on these reflections on thinking, and the answer I would propose to your question, Martha, is none.

I know that is enough to place the "crazy" hat on my head, but maybe not. I will attempt a condensed version of my reasoning.

Despite the appearance to the contrary, all thought occurs after an event. That which appears to presage an event, what we call "thinking it over" or any variation on the theme, I contend is just stringing together thoughts that have already occurred.

The brain is neutral on this question, only what we call our "mind" is interested. Our mind is interested because to be engaged in the inquiry supports the fundamental operating system of the mind -- that I exist and therefore I am. Further refinement of that OS is that what I think matters and has an impact on something else.

I challenge that, but it takes hours to go through the process. For verification, however, there are several of us here, and more in your acquaintance, who have had, through spiritual effort or chemical methods, experienced the absence of thought.

Each time I had such an experience I later noticed that everything still occurred despite my not having thought about it in advance. I know, not proof, but maybe worthy of consideration?

I propose the very heart of your question Martha is an attempt to BE, to matter, to give value to that mind of yours.

Now some I have discussed this with counter with lots of what ifs and buts -- "then why not just stop planning, do everything spur of the moment, etc?"

Maybe that is a good question to go along with the one you pose.

Many artists are much luckier after they are dead. I guess that you could say that Van Gogh made his luck.

Thanks for the thoughts. I'll continue to trudge. (Like I've found some other option?)

I've kidded around about My current writing project, saying that if my usual timing is at play, a publisher will buy PLAN B, the MS will win, it'll be a best-seller and John'll reap the rewards. Dang! I might as well just cut off my ear.