A matter of luck
THERE are just some people who believe in good fortune and avoiding its negative version. Even in house construction there are rules on the location of the doors and the windows and how to deflect bad vibes. Does the flow of the wind really bring good chi?
In personal grooming, these beliefs in supernatural forces, not necessarily religious, prevail. How else can one explain a cultivated goatee allowed to grow uncut and comprising of not more than five strands of hair? It has nothing to do with good grooming. (Yes, these eccentrics have fortunes to hang on too.)
Trying to get a lucky strike or avoid misfortune is a lifelong goal. Some prefer training and attending seminars, or “upskilling” — the more I practice, the luckier I get. Others prefer to consult fortune tellers who even advertise on billboards at bus stops.
From ancient times, priests and conjurers tried to predict the outcome of battles and looked for signs on the best time to embark on a major invasion or coup. The Romans routinely checked the entrails of birds on the best time for a triumph, the parade of a victor returning from battle. Still, a charioteer accompanying the victorious general was obliged to whisper to the victor’s ear that “this too shall pass” — sic transit gloria.
Do people really postpone construction when beset by stern warnings of “impediments in initiating a new project”? When does the “ghost month” start and end? When the warnings are defied and ill fortune befalls the project like the collapse of a wall, the unfortunate builder may well regret not heeding his astrological consultant.
Reading one’s good fortune in the coming year creates its own problems. The false sense of security can lead to smug arrogance that challenges the gods (or the writers of the horoscope) to back up their promise.
The idea that a certain group of people sharing an accident of birth dates will undergo a common fate is hard to swallow. Still, horoscope readers tend to be personalized and see the prediction as intended only for them. “Someone above you who has consistently derailed your career progress will be summarily dismissed for fraud. He will be screaming your name as the whistleblower as he is dragged out by his glued toupee.” Interpretations can point to a difficult boss being pirated by the competition and no longer able to inflict pain on you. It can be a romantic rival who decides to migrate to Canada… or a neighbor who always blocks your driveway with his SUV finally constructing his own garage rather than parking on the street.
Phrasings for fortune telling are intentionally vague to allow for multiple interpretations. Few readings are specific enough to allow only a single meaning — the SOB who had been hounding you all of last year will be stricken by bird flu and live in excruciating pain for 12 days in July before swooning in a narcoleptic fit and being cremated by mistake while still alive. Only the telltale tear among the ashes will indicate the dreadful mistake.
Fortune hunting is not always about gold-diggers. It can mean searching for the best reading of the future. Anyway, most astrological pieces tend to be optimistic. You can go through different glossy magazines in the beauty parlor for metrosexuals and glance through the various entries for a fire dog in the year of the fire pig next year. The worst reading (all your dreams will come true in the first semester, and then you will wake up) can be discarded.
Is it best to rely on a volatile fate which bodes neither good nor bad fortune? Life presents its own strokes of fate (like having an umbrella when it rains). It seems best to be surprised by unexpected events without benefit of anticipation. Still, life’s little speed bumps can be unusually bone-rattling.
Anticipation of bad luck can be a self-fulfilling prophecy. Indecision and wavering before taking the plunge may result in unfortunate results. Explaining away any development as a matter of luck can distort analysis of what really happened, or what needs to be done about it.
As the stoic Epictetus puts it, “You can’t control what happens to you, only how you react to it.” So maybe we should pray for equanimity… when good fortune strikes — how long will it last?
Tony Samson is chairman and CEO of TOUCH xda