Recently I've been thinking about the concept of luck, the idea that some people are simply more fortunate or unfortunate than others. Not because of what they've done or who they have been, it just sort of is what it is, some are just more likely to have good things happen to them than others. Just to be a bit more clear, cause and effect have nothing to do with it.
The reason why I wonder about this is kind of personal. I haven't been around for very long, but through the years I've been some places and made some good friends. I'm not really close to most of them nowadays, we just sort of drifted apart, but I have some good memories with those people. About seven people, to be exact. And four of those seven people have had it really rough, for some reason. First one is a girl, a childhood friend of mine. She was nice and all, still a good person today from what I hear. She suffered from a terrible disease when she was 2-3 years old that nearly killed her, a few years ago her cousin commited suicide, and even more recently her father killed himself during winter. Second is a guy who I'm still a close friend of. He has had problems with OCD and other stuff, he's pretty alone (I might be one of the few people who visit him outside of relatives) grades aren't going so well, and his mother hanged herself when he was just a boy. Third, there was this guy I became friends with during arts class. He was kind of a goofball, in a loveable way. He would kid around more than he would work, but we still got on pretty friendly terms. Then his middle-aged father was hit by a car and killed. My entire class attended the funeral. I've been to two funerals with old relatives, and neither of them came close to the level of depressing that his father's had. And finally, there is a guy in Germany who I've met over Steam, when playing Portal 2 coop. It was a good time, and we had some good conversations, eventually becoming kind of close (as close as you can get over the Internet anyway). So close that he revealed that he was suffering from a rare illness with his back, and was depressed and had tried to commit suicide several times (I think he even tried to ask me for help with it). NOTE: Before I say anything else, I should add that to the best of my knowledge these people (except the German guy) are leading fairly normal and healthy lives, and have managed to move on from their hardships.
So that's my reason for asking. Four perfectly decent people, that the world has shit on, with no explanation. I can't come up with a better reason for why this happened to them and not me, other than just plain'ol luck. It's ridiculous.
So my question: Do you people believe in luck, and if not, what then?
The reason why I wonder about this is kind of personal. I haven't been around for very long, but through the years I've been some places and made some good friends. I'm not really close to most of them nowadays, we just sort of drifted apart, but I have some good memories with those people. About seven people, to be exact. And four of those seven people have had it really rough, for some reason. First one is a girl, a childhood friend of mine. She was nice and all, still a good person today from what I hear. She suffered from a terrible disease when she was 2-3 years old that nearly killed her, a few years ago her cousin commited suicide, and even more recently her father killed himself during winter. Second is a guy who I'm still a close friend of. He has had problems with OCD and other stuff, he's pretty alone (I might be one of the few people who visit him outside of relatives) grades aren't going so well, and his mother hanged herself when he was just a boy. Third, there was this guy I became friends with during arts class. He was kind of a goofball, in a loveable way. He would kid around more than he would work, but we still got on pretty friendly terms. Then his middle-aged father was hit by a car and killed. My entire class attended the funeral. I've been to two funerals with old relatives, and neither of them came close to the level of depressing that his father's had. And finally, there is a guy in Germany who I've met over Steam, when playing Portal 2 coop. It was a good time, and we had some good conversations, eventually becoming kind of close (as close as you can get over the Internet anyway). So close that he revealed that he was suffering from a rare illness with his back, and was depressed and had tried to commit suicide several times (I think he even tried to ask me for help with it). NOTE: Before I say anything else, I should add that to the best of my knowledge these people (except the German guy) are leading fairly normal and healthy lives, and have managed to move on from their hardships.
So that's my reason for asking. Four perfectly decent people, that the world has shit on, with no explanation. I can't come up with a better reason for why this happened to them and not me, other than just plain'ol luck. It's ridiculous.
So my question: Do you people believe in luck, and if not, what then?
