Do We Make Our Own Luck?

Ijust received some terrible news. A dear friend of mine met someone, let that person housesit for them, and they robbed him blind. Took the car, took the DVD player, took money, took all the things that defined him in his environment. The guy is broken and I feel terrible about it. I wonder if I could have done or said something more to protect my colleague.

Grant you, I doubt it, but if you care about someone, you don't particular want them to suffer.

At the same time, I'm having a terrible time at my terrific job. I can narrow down my aggravations to one specific person (see Monday's input). Now this woman's involvement in my daily existence is nominal, not at all like taking my friend's life in a box and dumping on their pride. But still, it brought me to today's question...

...do we make our own luck?

In Chinese cultures, there's the I Ching. The philosophy is that your luck will influence everything around you. Literally, everything, like coins in your pocket. And if you take the time to flip those coins, you can actually get a reading on the amount of luck that is floating off your body.

Interesting thought.

But I cannot help that we do make our own luck. WHat if, and trust me, I really trust this dude and think he's awesome...but what if he some how influenced this bad luck? My older brother is a fucknut. And bad shit happens around him constantly. And he lives for it. He brings it down upon himself.

Like, for example, they outlawed pitbulls where he was living. So he went out and bought one and then had a hissy fit when the dog was taken away. He likes 'loose women' but when the call back, he gets mad and then they harrass him and show up at my mother's parties and on and on and on.

But he continues to insist that this is totally out of his control. That some how, it was the woman's fault she was so loose and then, when she wants to see him again, he cannot seem to understand that he called her.

The difference between my brother and my friend? I think my friend is cool. And my friend doesn't make fun of me constantly.

I look at myself. I almost think I'm exasperating these problems with my friend so I can be fired and then lose my job and then have to move to Florida. And my friend, I'm thinking, just thinking, since he never really had a steady partner/lover, that he looks down on himself enough to find someone that uses him. And steal everything.

Did he know this person would steal everything? No. I don't think he did. But he played up the positive to a point that even if his gut-feelings came into play, he had a difficult time to see it. We all know, you should let a stranger into your house, even if you aren't fucking them.

Now there's an axoim to this. There are big ticket items I still cannot explain. The Tsunami. Katrina. 9/11. THose victims had very little to do with that. They did not choose to be in that building at that time. They did not choose to go on that beach at that time.

But I'm starting to think, in some ways, we make more of our luck then we think. The question is...why don't we want more good luck? No, not dream of good luck. We all dream of the lottery. But really, really, create situations so that luck will come hurdling our way?

Something to ponder.

Now, to go help my friend so his luck can change. Any single people out there?