“Luck is a matter of preparation meeting opportunity”

Lucius Annaeus Seneca

I have been thinking recently about how lucky I have been in my life. Then on a whim (and for something to write about here) I looked at the Wikipedia entry on the word and searched for some quotes about it. According to the Wikipedia article there is “prescriptive luck” which is good/bad stuff imposed on people and caused by outside entities such as spirits, gods, numerology, superstitious ritual, celestial mechanics or other inhuman influences and including things such as the Grace-of or Wrath-of-God for dyed-in-the-wool Christians. Then there is what they call “descriptive luck”, which is really just that – a casual description after-the-fact of something that was unexpected or improbable.

Although I often “…thank the gods, or whoever else is out there” for my good luck, I really don’t mean it very seriously. I find…