Less than three weeks after the Munich air disaster of 6 February 1958 robbed the world of some of the most talented footballers on the planet, a little known Manchester woman, or more accurately Salford woman named Edith Marie Vincent, nee Hayes gave birth to a son in a sleepy Cornish village, ironically named St Germans.
Now, attempting to link these two events is i'll admit, tenuous and desperate in the extreme but as the aforementioned 'son' who has achieved little in life to trouble any columns of achievement above average and who is best known for a dance move that went horribly wrong, I hope the reader will allow a little poetic licence even if it is accepted that despite being an enthusiastic and committed amateur footballer, a Duncan Edwards I was not!
As a scrap of a child I did not flourish during my early years suffering in the main from childhood Asthma, a condition not helped by the house occupied also suffering a major malady, namely having no heating system other than a dilapidated rayburn, which when lit in winter would at least partially thaw the kitchen and heat a hot water boiler in the airing cupboard but leave the rest of the house colder than an Eskimos nose drip!
That having been said there follows not a seemingly tireless rant around the 'times were hard' theme. This would serve no useful purpose as every generation feels aggrieved at how easy things seem for their children compared to their own experience. Personally though I consider myself lucky that I did not spend my youth glued to a mobile phone checking my social media for 'likes' of my latest selfie!
For me the only lucky thing about growing up now for most kids is central heating!
So how do we know if we are lucky in life?
Well some might say if you are born into a loving family environment it matters not what else you perceive to be necessary to consider yourself lucky, you have already hit the jackpot.
But that is not the way we are conditioned to think is it?
Why else do we lament not winning a life changing sum of money on the lottery when we play it? considering ourselves to be just not a lucky person as it 'never happens to me'
So perception of luck is the driving force in how we see what happens to ourselves compared to others who we view as gleefully popping champagne corks and receiving mega sized cheques from Z list TV presenters.
Personally, I have never thought too much about receiving good-luck in my life having always considered it a commodity largely enjoyed by the ultra attractive and insanely rich. As I seem to have avoided enjoying either of those qualities I have paid scant attention to any discussion on the matter always asserting that our lot in life is mostly preordained by;
Where we are born;
The social standing and nurturing skills of our parents;
How clever we are plus our own drive and determination to achieve.
That having been said good-luck, or conversely the lack of it is one of those ethereal things which routinely plays a role in the everyday lives of all living things. Of course we don't recognize its influence in most of our daily dealings but when things either align or fall nicely into place in a good way, (good luck) or everything seems to go totally against all our hopes and aspirations (bad luck) it takes on an importance that is immeasurable.
Luck in one of its forms can be life inspiring, life changing or in a worst case scenario life ending.
So what about chance? Are luck and chance the same thing?
Well no, it seems to me that chance is the odds of something happening and luck is the event actually happening or not. To put it another way the chance of winning a lottery are pretty remote but as already discussed that doesn't stop folks up all over the world taking a punt in the hope they get 'lucky' and have a life changing sum of money winging its way into their bank account!
So consider this dear reader,
You probably stumbled across and read this post by chance, but amazingly it was written by a lovely, stunningly handsome bloke and was very informative!.....................
You lucky thing! 😁
