Maybe luck simply means having better access to resources
On luck and the scarcity of equal access.
Someone recently remarked how “lucky” I was. I affirmed the statement but then thought, “Yes, but.. shouldn’t more people be lucky? Shouldn’t everybody?” Just to qualify, I’m not talking about the type of luck akin to winning the lottery or snagging your dream job. I’m talking about the type of luck that comes with getting a basic need where you need it when you need it. I couldn’t help but thus reflect:
Maybe the only difference between myself and any random street urchin is access: access to better education, access to better healthcare, access to better choices. I mean, if you really think about it, what makes you distinctly different from the beggar down the street?
Both of you have the same number of lungs, the same number of kidneys, the same number of bones, the same genetic structure common to the human race. Both of you have parents and survival instincts. Both of you need oxygen to survive. So what gives? What makes your existence significantly different from that of a typical beggar? Why is it doable for you — and yet damn near impossible for those faceless souls forced to live and sleep on sidewalks - to eat well, see a doctor, and graduate from university?
To give a starker example, what’s one fundamental difference between a kid born in North Forbes versus a kid born in Baseco Compound? Access. Methinks it really all boils down to that.
(Here’s a short side story: I went hiking with pals last year and we hired a guide to help us along the path. It was an arduous climb and I almost lost my sense of humor, but I was jolted out of my self-absorbed exhaustion when our guide fished out his phone to answer a message. Did you know that in this day and age, there are still some people to whom surfing the Internet is a luxury because owning a smartphone is out of their reach? Internet access isn’t a basic necessity per se, but non-access to it just furthers the gap between the haves and have-nots.)
To be born poor is to have the odds stacked against you from the get-go. To be sure, there are happy tales of those who beat the odds. For every individual who escapes the poverty cycle, however, there are legions more who die without ever knowing the security of having enough funds to tide one over the next day, and the next, and the next.
That’s why I wish for a more even distribution of resources across all strata. I’m aware that such statements are a pipe dream, but whatever. It’s a dream worth piping on, if only for the reason that such a scenario would ultimately mean less unrest, more productivity, and peace — the type of peace people instinctively love and willingly sacrifice for.
Not that I’m not expecting any miracles here. Even a rough approximation of this ideal would do.
