Lucky

"Random chance seems to have operated in our favour." - Spock
"In plain, non-Vulcan English, we've been lucky..." - McCoy
"I believe I said that, Doctor." - Spock
(from the Star Trek episode 'The Doomsday Machine')

I posted a picture on my Facebook wall last night. Actually, I kind of felt I had to. Don't usually do that sort of thing...

You see, I had the opportunity to go for a meal in the Sky Garden restaurant (it's 36 storeys up, right on the top on London's 'Walkie Talkie' building just by the Thames). Here's the pic...

Terrific view, isn't it? I don't usually get to see London from that sort of viewpoint. It's the sort of view you usually only get from an aircraft - and I've only flown a handful of times in my life.

However, I was taken aback by a couple of the comments that were made following that post...

Some of them said that I was 'lucky'...

Do I think I am lucky?

Not in the slightest. 

You see, I don't actually subscribe to the concept of luck.

It was an ancient Roman idea, wasn't it? They used to talk about the goddess Fortuna, their own personification of luck. It's from her name is where we get the word ‘fortune’.

Luck implies that good fortune can be a tangible thing in itself - and certain objects, like for example four-leaf clovers, are said to bring luck. It's superstition, pure and simple. So, no. I wasn't lucky.

Carl Jung said that he viewed luck as synchronicity, which he described as "a meaningful coincidence". It's interesting that he used the term 'meaningful' - I suspect it all depends on who attaches the meaning to it....

Perhaps you might even say that "random chance has operated in my favour".

Or, if you accept this final concept, you might say that God has blessed me with an awesome experience yesterday.

I'll accept either of the latter two. But I know which one I believe.... :)