Luck

[davywavy]

People say that the number 13 is unlucky; there are a number of theories how this might have come about: from such as 13 people being at the Last Supper ("Thirteen at the Table"); to Alexander the Great wanting to be Deified into the 13th seat of the pantheon; to the Ancient Sumerian system of counting which was Base 12 (Based on someone counting the joints of the fingers with their thumb). It is certainly curious that the number to have come up least on the National Lottery should be unlucky 13 (Click on the 'to date' function).

But that begs the question of whether luck actually exists; superstitions the world over acknowledge it in that random blind fate can be propitiated by rituals (Jonny Wilkinsons little ritual before kicking the ball in the world cup being a current famous example) - but of course that begs the question of how much the extra little bit of confidence that performing the ritual (or the little dent to confidence that not carrying it out, or having that Black cat cross your path, or breaking the mirror) actually affects your own performance and concentration and ability.

I've always believed in my own luck. I have a confidence that everything is going to turn out okay as I blithely wander through life, and what do you know? It usually does. But does this mean I'm actually 'lucky' in the sense that fate bends about me and the curve of happenstance is skewed in my favour? Or am I just confident? Or do I just see events in a generally positive light?

Is there, in other words, such a thing as 'luck'; a thing that makes events and probability fall in favour or disfavour to one person or another? Or is it simply that the blind, cold, uncaring universe apportions fortune and failure irrespective, and the whole shebang is based on how we view it and our own perceptions of events?

Comments

[blue-cat.livejournal.com]

You have skewed into the concept of faith - which lurks either in the centre of religion or on its fringes ;)

Some of it is perception, some of it is attitude but much of it is Chaos and how you react to said chaos.

But before one brings in the 'weird stuff' explainations there is an element of manipulation - your manipulation of the threads of your life. There are things you do that make you 'lucky' or 'unlucky' that you can't see.

You have good mates, buy your rounds and are known as decent. You loose your wallet but luckly you find a tenner in the pocket of your coat hanging up..... or is this a mate who knows you wouldn't accept help who stuck it there for you? or does the barman extend credit, just this once? or does a friend 'happen' to be going near your home et etc etc.

Or are you untidy and down in the mouth - can't understand why you loose your jobs so regularly, can't understand why every one picks on you when you are only trying to do your own thing? You never notice that you are rude to people, that the quality of your work is poor cause 'I'm not paid enough to care' and that in interviews you present a bad image, or worse, desperate?

Having said this, chaos is the number one - the chaos of your genetics giving you a tendancy to diabetes perhaps, the chaos of the car being in the wrong place, the chaos of who gets selected for the redundancy list. not to mention the random chance of who gets hit inthe face by a firework.

[jonnyargles.livejournal.com]

13 is not so much the number of bad luck, but the number of chaos. Judas was the 13th disciple, and broke the strength of the order; Loki was the 13th son of Odin, and the trickster.

13 is the number that defies predictability (except that it always comes after 12)the number that defies conventions of good or ill, but puts order in the hands of chaos.

It's all quantum anyway.