Have you ever tried to pick up a tomato seed? Attempting to explain luck is a lot like trying to pick up a tomato seed. You can put your fingers on it, but you can’t quite grab a hold on it. There are probably more questions about the nature of luck than there are answers.
 
To start with, can we agree that luck is an experience? If so, then what is the initiator of luck before it manifests as an experience? What is the essence of luck, be it good luck or bad luck? What are the pre-existing conditions necessary for any type of luck to occur? And when luck is not good, how does luck “know” to be bad? Additionally, is there a limited supply of luck? That is, to question, why is luck like a controlled substance, delivered in doses? What is the prescription for acquiring good luck consistently? And who do you have to pay for protection from bad luck?
 
We can’t see luck until it has resulted in an outcome. Luck is not tangible; we can’t touch it. We can’t demand luck and have it obey. Hoping to be lucky is hopeless. Luck is not fair and sometimes it may appear unjust. Just the same, everyone seems to agree that luck exists. Also most people are okay with the fact that luck seems to bless some more than others. The old saying, “I’d rather be lucky than good”, is profoundly lame. We can control being good. We can develop a talent. We can commit to excellence. We can strive for success. We can dedicate ourselves to a passion. However, we cannot grasp luck by the nape of the neck and have it show up at three o’clock on Wednesday. Why wish to be at the whim of luck? Isn’t it better to be great and in control of life?
 
If you have been a reader of Playing 4 Keeps® for a while, you probably know my feelings about the subject of luck. I don’t believe in luck. I don’t believe in accidents, coincidence, or happenstance. I believe that there is a purpose to life, and everything happens for a reason. I believe the energy of the present moment influences our reality. It is not about being fair and everyone getting the same treatment. I believe in spirituality. I believe that we are here to have the experience necessary for a spiritual evolution fueled by metaphysical properties. What I refer to as “energy and applied metaphysics”.
 
Recently, while driving in my truck, I listened to a radio program that attempted to explain the phenomena of luck. I know, huh, there are still some people who connect to the world with antiquated forms of technology like radio, and even on-line newsletters. The theme of the program focused on why some individuals seemed to be luckier, compared to less fortunate others, labeled unlucky.
 
My interest perked up as the program addressed luck as an experience, described as the result of happenstance or coincidence. The experience of luck as happenstance or coincidence produces the ecstasy, the euphoric high of a childhood like experience. Take the example of when someone wins a lottery ticket for a lot of money. Although I can agree with the thrill of winning, the notion that luck is delivered on the wings of happenstance and coincidence is simply a cop-out. We are not powerless wimps, standing in mass, with out-stretched arms, hoping for a euphoric crumb to fall into our warm palms, compliments of “life’s mythical benefactor, luck.” I was not impressed by this explanation of luck being an emotional experience falling out of the sky onto the head of Henny Penny. (Dumb cluck with dumb luck… pun intended.) Never-the-less, I continued to listen with interest, waiting for the lucky explanation that would debunk my flawed skepticism of luck.
 
As the program continued, I caught myself wondering if perhaps I had given luck a bad rap. I began to process what I was hearing, and I tried to reconcile the notion of coincidence causing euphoria. I flashed back to a time of feeling euphoria as a child. I can still recall the feeling very clearly. “Why can’t every day be like an eight-year-old child’s Christmas?” Is lucky just an adjective used to describe what happens when a person has a euphoric experience as a result of happenstance or coincidence? Is it just a word to explain the unexplained occurrence when fortune befalls the unexpected or undeserving? Is luck simply the “feeling” Homer Simpson has upon discovering two doughnuts in the employee break room?
 
I was still driving while listening to the program, when I experienced one of those separations of consciousness between driver, truck, and road. I was on auto pilot, detached from conscious driving while pondering luck. Yet, I managed to keep the truck on the road without threat to life or limb, (lucky, I guess). I snapped back to the present moment when I heard the comment that “luck was neither good nor bad”. In fact, in many cultures, “good luck” is never expressed. Luck is simply referred to as just “luck”, or “suerte”, for example. The word good is omitted. In these cultures, the meaning of luck is more like a positive intention. Saying “luck” is a concentrated statement in one word, expressing goodwill. “G’donya”, comes to mind if you’re from Australia, meaning, “Good on you”, to acknowledge a positive attribute.
 
Upon hearing that “luck is neither good nor bad” I listened more closely, turning up the volume. I have long held a belief that metaphysical energy is without prejudice, neither good, nor bad. “Metaphysical Energy” is expressed as a high or low without conditional judgment. It is simply identifying the forces behind an experience. I pondered what was being said on the radio. It dawned on me that perhaps, just maybe after all of these years of saying that I do not believe in luck, that I did it right in the wrong sort of way. Can it be that luck and energy are synonymous? Does it all boil down to semantics and one’s interpretation of the meaning of words?
 
Regarding good or bad luck, one can easily tell a story of happenstance and simply substitute the word energy for the word luck, with high and low instead of good and bad. Be it high or low, good, or bad, an experience comes down to timing. Timing is a basic metaphysical premise of being in the right place, at the right time, with the right action. Is it just lucky, or does it have to do with being aligned with the energy, and not victim to happenstance or coincidence?
 
Being on the “stage of life” represents being in a scene or setting in the present moment, and we are the actors. On the best night, an actor’s energy is at its highest. However, luck has always been measured in terms of the end result. The outcome is usually measured in terms of winning versus losing. Is the measure of luck subjected to judgment and the degree to which one is thrilled or disappointed? If you happen to be a football fan and watched the Patriot / Bronco game, Sunday Night Football, November 24th, 2013, you witnessed a good example of the metaphysical energy of right place, right time, with the right action.

Is luck a judgment of an experience, tied to emotion, to explain how and why the unexplained could have occurred? Heaven knows, we must have an explanation for things, or go mad for not knowing. Consider the outside chance that maybe the way life is experienced is a factor of a person’s energy. That is to say, a person’s energy, and their combined thoughts and beliefs, directly influence the resulting reality. Could it be that life’s experiences are drawn to us, for a purpose, as a result of our personal metaphysical energy? Everything happens for a reason. We learn from the lessons we experience, or we are bound to repeat them. I am suggesting that to determine the outcome of an experience to be a result of good luck or bad luck is a judgment, and not necessarily in alignment with the spiritual evolution and highest good of the individual. Who can say what is good or bad for your life’s path, based on an experience of happenstance? Often evaluating the outcome ends in confusion and mystery. Instead, could we come to accept the fact that the way things are, is the way they are, no judgment. Quoting the last line of the movie, Karma Sutra, “Life is right in any case.”  
 
In conclusion, thinking now that luck could be a synonym for energy, to wish someone good luck is like giving a blessing. Kind of like saying, “Take care, see you later, drive carefully.” In those words, the energy is bestowed upon the other person to have “good fortune” for safety. “My dear friend, may the spirit of positive energy be with you on your journey, and may it deliver you safely to your home.” In a text message, just send “GL bub”. Upon receiving the blessing, it is then up to the receiver of the “luck” to take the appropriate action. Driving safely or diving crazily, for example, is a choice. With any luck, (energy) they arrive safely at home. With any luck, they narrowly miss driving off a bridge. High energy, low energy, is it just luck? If they drive off the bridge, is it bad luck, or bad driving? Maybe it was just icy conditions and bad tires. Still, is it luck, energy, or human error?
 
So, my dear tomato seed, with all of this to think about, in the spirit of Dirty Harry, “Do you feel lucky?”  
 
Luck has nothing to do with it when you are Playing 4 Keeps®.  
 
Buenos Suerte Mi Amigo!
 
Copyright ©2013 Michael Vernon