Good Luck or Bad Luck – it all depends on us

I wrote a Facebook post this week about how I had passed two rabbits while out on my jog. My post said something about how if one rabbit foot was lucky, my day, after seeing eight feet, was going to be fabulous. So was it? Luck is all in our interpretation.

Here’s what happened later that day and on the subsequent days. I was on my way to show a potential rental client a few rentals. I was early for the appointment and only about 10 minutes away when my phone rang. It was my 20 year old son who indicated he was stuck in the middle of a drugstore parking lot – something was wrong with the tire on his car. As it so happened, his location was only about 10 minutes from where I was at the time (although in a different direction) so I zipped over to see what was wrong before I went to my appointment.

The bottom line, he had driven through a pothole while moving through a parking lot, and his tire was tilted. There was no way to drive the vehicle, so we had to wait an hour for a tow truck, I had to cancel my appointment, and the car needed to be towed to a nearby auto repair shop where they showed us what happened. The 215K miles on the vehicle were finally catching up to the original parts. The control arm and ball joint had separated and both front control arms and all ball joints needed to be repaired. As it was already late in the afternoon, they told us the earliest the car could be fixed was late the next day since they had to order parts. So off we went.

The next day, the car wasn’t finished because after replacing the parts, they needed to send it to the alignment shop. It would be done the following day. So the following day we showed up in the afternoon. The car was finished. The bill was paid. My son went to start his car to drive home and the brake pedal went to the floor.

We went back inside and when the repair guys looked at the car, they found the brake line had just snapped right there in front of the garage. There was a puddle of brake fluid and no brakes. We couldn’t take the car with us. We had to leave it another night.

The next day the car was fixed, and the garage only charged me for an hour labor and no parts since they felt bad that I had just paid oodles of dollars the day before and couldn’t even take the car with us.

The car works fine now. So was this good luck or bad?

A pessimist or half-empty person might see this as bad luck. My son had to miss two days of work since he was stuck with no car. I had to pay over a thousand dollars to fix the car. We had to spend five or six hours of our time driving to get to/from our homes and the shop. I had to cancel an appointment with a potential rental client. That was all bad luck, wasn’t it? Or was it?

As a half or all full person, and an optimist, I think this was all GOOD luck. First, had my son’s control arm and ball joint broken while hitting a pothole while driving on a highway, he might not have been there to get his car fixed. His wheel would have collapsed right there on the highway. Who knows what could have happened. It was very good luck he was driving through a parking lot.

Further, when his brake line snapped, he was right in front of an autobody garage. Had he been driving that vehicle at any speed and had the line snap, he could have also been seriously hurt. It was very good luck he was parked where he was.

Also, I just happened to be 10 minutes away from him when his car broke down, on my way to an appointment near him. I cover a huge area and could have been hours from him. It was good luck I happened to be right there and could help.

At the time, I was very cranky about all the driving around. But in hindsight, that was simply more luck. We were able to spend hours together that we wouldn’t have had otherwise. I was even able to bring him with me to lunch with my inlaws, which everyone enjoyed. That was lucky indeed!

As for the potential rental client, I think it was good luck I didn’t meet with them either. I already knew they had bad credit and finding them a home would be tough, but I agreed to meet them anyway. They were not happy when I explained the situation and they refused to respond my request to communicate since. I saved myself a tough transaction, so that was good luck as well.

So did the eight rabbit feet I saw the other day make me lucky? I don’t think they had anything to do with it. I think we can choose to view our lives as lucky or not, and as far as I’m concerned, my son and I both won the luck lottery.