I suppose I should have posted this in March, since it’s about luck. But it seems more appropriate now since the event mentioned happened in October (1962).
Luck is defined as a force that brings good fortune or adversity. On the latter, I wonder when I hear “It’s just my luck” how anyone can be singled out to have such an abundance of bad luck. Perhaps, like beauty, it’s in the eye of the beholder, and with a shift in focus we can be much more aware of the good fortune that comes our way.
When I was editing A Great Flash of Light by Frank Bognar, his memoir about growing up in the early years of the nuclear age, he told me about a comment made by Robert McNamara who was US Secretary of Defense under President John F. Kennedy at the time of the Cuban Missile Crisis. McNamara attributed the positive outcome of the Cuban Missile Crisis—the fact that it didn’t end in nuclear war—to luck.
I thought about that comment and decided it wasn’t luck at all. It was compassion and courage. It was the leader of the Soviet Union Nikita Khrushchev and U. S. President John F. Kennedy deciding to work together to avoid nuclear destruction. They chose to reject their joint chiefs recommendations to attack each other and, instead, chose a path of peace. And, independently, Vasily Arkhipov, the Soviet naval officer aboard a nuclear armed submarine near Cuba at the time, said no to a most violent act against humanity. His approval was one of three required to launch nuclear missiles. Two had already voted yes. He could not. He, too, chose peace.
Through the years, there have always been the peacemakers, the light bearers—that believe above all else in the sanctity of life and the living, those that choose through word or deed, large or small, that love and all its expressions is what nurtures, encourages, and empowers peaceful action. In every moment of every day they choose love over hate, understanding over fear, to encourage rather than criticize, to share rather than withdraw, and to speak up rather than be silent.
In this moment, countless people are choosing the same. People around the world have silently and largely chosen to launch a campaign of peace, to plant seeds, extend a hand, express their authenticity—they choose loving action because they believe in the greater good in all relationships, both short- and long-term.
It isn’t luck that we as a species have managed to survive. It’s love that teaches and inspires us to choose on its behalf. It’s those actions in greater number and countless expression that keeps us thriving. It is love that is always expanding, always available, and always waiting to be chosen.
Speaking of beholding, clovers—a symbol of luck—are shaped like hearts. Finding hearts in nature is always a treat and a reminder that love is everywhere, all the time.
Image by Kerstin Riemer from Pixabay
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