driving without a rearview mirror
Luck’s a funny thing. Some folks don’t much believe in it – or don’t want to – since they think they’re the Captains of their own Destiny. Me, I’m easily seasick on the storm tossed waters of my life … so I put more faith in luck than my own crummy navigational skills. I guess living on the South End had a lot to do with it. You find yourself on an island on the edge of a continent, you think it’s a short walk before the next move is a wet one. I came when no one had heard of Camano, few people lived here and most of the cheap land was far down at the south end where I stumbled in one dark and stormy night. Luck had pretty much run out, jobs were scarce and a bad marriage had foundered on the rocks thanks to the aforementioned maritime skills.
I bought a shack and 7 acres for the princely sum of $25,000, everything I had down, $225 a month for the next 15 years. Sound cheap? Well, I had a hard time meeting that mortgage the first few years. But a funny thing happened on the way to the poorhouse. Corny as an A.M. radio pop song, I fell in love, got married to my old sweetheart and fell in love too with my place, the South End and my life. Lucky? You bet!!
We take forks in the road all the time. I know buddies who always wonder where the other road would’ve take them. I don’t look back. I don’t use the rearview mirror because it takes all my attention to drive the road I took, the one with the NEXT fork and the unexpected curve. You ask me — and I know you didn’t —luck is part being ready for it. It’s not a lottery ticket, it’s that small opening, that slim opportunity, that sudden chance that may not come twice, the one that veers up out of the headlights and offers, for those who are ready for it, a new game, a fresh start, a brand new road. Luck, I’ll admit this: it does take some skill.
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