The luck of the unlucky one ...

...is that he never gets lucky.

This was told to me by a bum a few years ago, while I was playing the guitar in the streets of one hippie beach side place from my home country. Initially I found it funny and actually thought this was quite a quirky saying. But later, I thought about it, and the more I thought the less sense it made. I mean, how come the luck is to not have luck, it seems like a contradiction. And it is. But at the same time, it is not.

This saying reminded me of an old childhood story, called the old man's daughter and the old woman's daughter. Basically the story is like Cinderella, but placed in a rural environment. So there was an old guy who had a daughter and an old woman who also had a daughter. The daughter of the old guy was smart and hardworking and modest and beautiful and so on. The daughter of the old woman was the opposite: spoiled and pretentious and envious and stupid among other things. The final it is easy to anticipate: after several challenges and the daughter of the old guy ends up good, whereas the other girl ends up not as good.

And then I think I understood what this saying is about: the unlucky one, by not having luck they have to make it on their own. Nothing is granted for free to them, they have to fight and earn most of what they get, good or bad. And in this struggle or fight, they also acquire skills and abilities and they develop themselves. And this is the luck that it is about: by not being protected and having to toughen up, in the end, they rise up above the others.

We also have another saying which says that whatever does not kill you, makes you stronger. That it is also true. But just as true as that is that sometimes, whatever does not kill you, can cripple you. Funny thing is that sometimes the crippled ones are the stronger ones, exactly for this reason. If you can overcome your cripples, you gain something that most don't even get to experience. Or as someone else put it: Experience come from experience. Experience comes from making bad decisions. So who can say what is good or bad, it is all a matter of perspective.

Many times in my life I thought I made a lot of mistakes, and for sure that I have done plenty. However, as time passed I understood that what I considered mistakes a while ago, later proved to be simple lessons that I had to go through. Sometimes I learned from them, many times I had to relearn and rerelearn but in the end, it was just life. And for that thing now I try to educate myself not judge as much in terms of good or bad, black and white and so on. The pallet of colors is much more extensive than what we tend to think.

And from this point of view, stereotyping is a characteristic of the lazy. It is much easier to classify and place things and people and ideas in little boxes with a tag attached, so that to know how to approach a certain situation. Reality on the other hand, taught me that these boxes are not fixed. After all the only constant thing in life is change. Therefore, when we stereotype things and people, what we actually do is become lazy and complacent and trying to find an universal recipe to complex situations that can not be recipied.

From this point of view people also say that history repeats itself, just like a circle. To me this is a simplistic, two dimensional view. In my opinion history never repeats itself and for sure not like in a circle. If you go three dimensional history is may be viewed as a spiral. And if you go quad dimensional or hexa-dimensional or n-dimensional, then where is the circle?

So history has certain patterns but these patterns alter and change all the time. So it is immature to consider that whatever happened will happen again. And what used to be will be again. It might be again, but not in the same shape, form, with the same length or different magnitude and so on. Because it is not a circle. Even the spiral is not necessarily to be a regulated circling spiral. It may be an oval spiral or a square one, or an octagonal one. Or just an irregular spiral.

Anyway, I started from that saying about luck and unluck. Things are relative and will always be this way. Coming back to mistakes and bad luck, many times I wished to have been able to retake certain decisions, to undo certain things I have done. The more I live, the less I feel this way. I think that whatever every one becomes, is a matter of choice and also a matter of will. So in this respect, we create ourselves with our own choices and mistakes or accomplishments, anyway you want to put it. But in the end, we all end up where we are supposed to be. And by being "supposed to be" I refer to the effort that we are willing to take in pursuing our interests, desires and passions.

One last food for thought: I've come from nowhere and I am not shy to go back. Well, me personally I have came from somewhere, and I like to think that I went places as well. But at the same time, I believe that wherever we come from, this does not mean that we are also supposed to stay there our whole life.

This is one thing that I have been taught in my travels: coming from somewhere or from sometime should and does not define who that person is. It affects and influences, but at the end of the day, it is that person's choice about how much of that influence will let affect it to who he or she is and who he or she will become. I believe in freewill and choices, with the amendment that like anything else, these are also limited. Best part is that these limits are also relative and most times only in our heads or in the society's view. "I know my limits, but I choose to ignore them".

Anyway, too much philosophy for a sunny day like today, I have to get ready to jump on my bicycle and enjoy some D Vitamin and maybe later a coffee too. And this is my choice for today :P.

Adiopa!