From The Storyteller
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Hello All: Tracking down an old saying saying can lead in many directions. Enjoy, Doug
Wood “I’m doing good so far, knock on wood,” reads a good friend’s e-mail’s response to my question about his family during 2020. His “knock on wood” saying called for one of those flash Google searches, and I found its tap root is uncertain. Some suggest the pagan Celt’s did it to connect with the “luck” spirits that lived in the trees, while others suggest it came from Christians, who were trusting their “luck” to the wood of the cross. Which of course brought me to the often-spoken belief that you “don’t change your socks when you’re on a winning streak”, and people having “good luck” coins, shirts, seats, etc. These exist because we humans believe some things happen in our lives simply because of a thing we call “luck”. Examples: A chance meeting at a coffee shop brings a new job opportunity (good luck), or your car being hit by another (bad luck). Which naturally brings me to the saying “Chance favors the prepared”, and wonder how that is different than “luck”. A chance coffee shop meeting amounts to only a greeting exchange, if the job-seeker hadn’t previously done the work necessary to qualify for that new position, and auto wrecks go better if you have auto insurance. “Luck” (chance) is definitely a part of our life, and yet so too is preparation. Which brings me to the idea of how I self-identify as a lucky guy. There’s no magic to it; I just find that, by focusing on the interesting things I stumble across daily, there is always something to smile about. Every person I meet knows something I don’t, and just by paying attention to them, my world is filled with wonderful things. That makes me a lucky guy. Moral: Our “luck” and our world view are connected. Knock on wood. |