On Luck.

In what fantasy would there exist so much luck in someone's life at the same time as so little intended outcomes?
Where someone can become successful or fulfilled beyond their wildest dreams thanks to a lottery ticket, an overbooked flight, systematic seating arrangements, or for being the millionth individual to purchase a f*****g air conditioner while being just as or more likely to reach deeper depths than they could have predicted thanks to fine print, pollution, a drunk driver, or the cost of medication?
How deserved of praise are those in the right place at the right time?
How deserved of blame are those who find themselves in the wrong place at the wrong time?
No one ever tries to be at the wrong place at the wrong time, if they did, and succeeded, they would have been at the exact time and place they wished to be at, which would be the right time and place for them.
It's just luck.
And so is being at the right place at the right time, only, so long as someone is -trying- to be in the right place at the right time they can be said to deserve it.
They are allowed to take responsibility for luck.
The fact is that whether it happens or not isn't up to them.
Still..
If someone sees this (or not) and puts no effort into being in the right place at the right time, then either-
They ARE, and are considered lucky,
Or,
Are NOT, and shouldn't expect anything different,
Or,
Are in the WRONG place at the WRONG time, and should have TRIED HARDER to be otherwise, even though it is still just luck. This goes for any combination of the two other than right place and right time. Everything is a failure if it's not a total success. Right place, wrong time? Should have tried harder. Wrong place, right time? Should have tried harder.

...

What is more impressive than someone's investments doing well, or someone's happy family, or someone else's own personal health?
The fact that this other guy's house burned down the same day he got fired, which was the same day he had twins, which was the same day he lost his wife, which was the same day that, when social services heard he had no job and no house and no wife, he lost custody of the twins, which was the same day as the best day of the rest of his life.
That is more impressive, because it's so god damned lucky.
Bad luck, but luck.
The same luck that changes the environment in which individuals of the public grow up in, which influences their dispositions towards choices they face the rest of their lives, like which products to buy, which companies to support, which car to drive, how to commute, which insurance to cover themselves with, etc, which all drives stock values, which drives investments.
The same luck that keeps the weather nice on a family vacation, encouraging your kids to play outside and hopefully make connections and friends rather than hibernating and waiting for a rainy weekend of no phone service and burnt hotdogs to be over. The same luck that keeps the weather nice on a family vacation allowing your partner and you to enjoy who you were when you met each other while the kids are busy, rather than listening to the other say what you wish you could say to the kids, but resent them for saying it at your babies - how could they? - and slowly begin hating yourself for remembering those are the words you wish you could say to them.
The same luck that gives you an enjoyment of coffee and orange juice rather than a repulsion at such bitter and tart tastes. The same luck that both of these things help prevent different types of kidney stones. The same luck where if you suffered through that much pain with your high blood pressure you would have had a heart attack. The same luck that pushes the arrival of that aneurysm back one more day each time you wake up.
Every scenario is dependent on luck. You may make no mistakes and still acquire undesired results. You may make no efforts at all, and achieve someone else's dream.

This sense of responsibility for outcomes and results is so ingrained, to me at least, that when I try, and try so hard, so out of my comfort zone, and fail, so f*****g badly do I fail, that I have to ask myself-
What is so wrong with me that I can try so hard and fail so badly.