Having luck in old-time, and modern Phoenix, Arizona


I was talking to my brother recently and he mentioned that he had been lucky in regards to a job that he had gotten years ago, which led to some really good things in his life, and overall it's got me to thinking about luck, especially in old-time Phoenix, and even nowadays.

We talk about luck so much that we hardly notice when we tell someone "good luck" on their test, or make a reference to testing your luck, by saying things like "You bet!" Luck is really just a form of superstition, and many people can be very nervous about doing things that might give them bad luck. I've been known to be shushed by people when I say that it might rain today, and they tell me to shut up before I jinx it!

In my experience, I've found that luck favors the prepared. I'm more of an "odds" person, and I like to evaluate the odds of something being successful, as opposed to thinking that I might be in luck at any particular moment. I had to take a "dum-dum" math class to complete my Fine Arts Degree at ASU, and the class, which was basic arithmetic, was called "Probabilities", and while I never got very good at math, I learned why casinos consistently make money, because the odds are in their favor, not just luck.

Still, luck is related to hope, and I certainly don't want to discourage that. And I often think about the Phoenix pioneers who waited patiently for air conditioning to be invented, but had unluckily been born too soon. In that way I've been particularly lucky, as I've had air conditioning from the day I first moved to Phoenix, in 1977, and I'm enjoying some right now during a very severe heat wave!

Of course, any discussion of luck would be incomplete if I didn't touch on a delicate subject. I don't want to violate any of the rules of Google (who host this blog), and I have some personal integrity not to say anything obscene, but we're all adults here, and if you've never heard the phrase "getting lucky", well, this is the internet, and you can look it up. Enough about that!

There's no doubt that random stuff happens to us all of the time, some for good, some for bad. I hit a palm tree once at the Cave Creek golf course and bounced onto the green, and it stands out to me as one of the luckiest shots I've ever made! Then of course I had bad luck later on (that's my story, and I'm sticking to it). 

I consider myself lucky to have been able to make Phoenix my home. A lot of things had to happen which were beyond my control for me to be here, and I guess you could say I've been very lucky.

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