What of Luck?

Many great men have spent time sitting by their window sills, or at their mahogany desks, or in lush gardens, or in derelict apartments, or in jail cells, and thought of luck.

Luck. To be lucky.To be of privilege without any particular cause. To come of success without any particular effort. To be awarded the upper hand without request.

Money, love, capital - the way men have turned to luck for the acquiring of these.

(Note: I firmly press upon you the respect I have for female potency and must say, by 'men' I do mean all of mankind.)

I am sure many have neglected increasing their efforts in hopes of Luck saving the day. People pray for luck before exams, before entering court rooms, before marriage proposals.

What do we expect luck to provide? All that is not immediately attainable? We ask for luck when we know we have overlooked something, when our goals seem even the tiniest bit out of reach, when we lack the confidence empower ourselves.

Consider what these greats have said of luck:


"Shallow men believe in luck or in circumstance. Strong men believe in cause and effect."
Ralph Waldo Emerson

"It was the nation and the race dwelling all round the globe that had the lion's heart. I had the luck to be called upon to give the roar."
Winston Churchill

"Diligence is the mother of good luck."
Benjamin Franklin

"Nothing goes by luck in composition. It allows of no tricks. The best you can write will be the best you are."
Henry David Thoreau


Of these men, few acknowledge that luck is of some ascendant grace which falls upon those deemed worthy. They state plainly that luck entails the application of focus and drive; that hard work is what ensure any amount of luck. That with "cause" and "diligence" luck will come. Asserting that luck is the spawn of effort may suggest something of a subjective perspective on work ethic. However, I think the message they convey is important. Luck needs a catalyst in order to be sparked. What ignites that spark is the effort one asserts into the attainment of their goal.

Now let's take Lady Luck and branch out a little.

Fate, Destiny, Chance, Fortune. Theses forces have been represented in history, literature and mythology for hundreds of years. Humans have been enthralled by the idea that there may be some ungoverned force influencing the consequences of one's life.

For example, Fortuna - the personification of Luck in Roman mythology.

Fortuna was an ambivalent force in that it one was unable to determine when and how she would bring luck and whether or not it would be good or bad. She was crafty. Often presented as veiled or blind, she had no knowing where she'd exercise her strength. She was then portrayed in a ubiquitous image of the Wheel of Fortune which was exploited in the Middle Ages.

This is Botticelli's representation of Lady Fortune spinning her wheel.

Eventually, with the onset of Christianity, philosopher Boethius wrote that the "random and ruinous" turns of Fortune's Wheel were a result of providence and not chance. His discourse states Lady Fortune was a servant of God and acted according to the Divine Will. Luck, in many ways had run its course.

With so many conflicting opinions about what Luck, or Fate, or Fortune, Chance or Destiny is, I suppose the responsibility is ours to decide what we'd like it to mean in the context of our lives.

Hope this provoked you into asking a few questions of your own.