We like to tell ourselves that fortune rewards effort, because we like to think that our efforts make a difference. Politicians delude us that hard work is rewarded as part of the American dream, but we all know that political organizations are awash with government employees who get paid to show up regardless of the amount or quality of work they achieve. As we get older, we see that people are rewarded not for what they know but who they know, that people still make special deals for their friends or for leverage. In reality, the world at large rewards luck over effort, opportunity over skill, preference over performance..
Many people are rewarded by virtue of being born into the right families. Most people are born seemingly randomly into families, which puts them in different starting positions for life. Some people end up in the "right" families which afford them opportunities denied to the rest of us, even if they don't make good use of it. Select few are born rich or pretty. Others have connections and inherit the family business without having to slog through the muck. Others are put together with the "right" mates because families can look out better for their children. It makes me feel bad for the people in the apartment complexes across from Wal-mart, because those people live lives of quiet desperation and have to ask me to buy them cereal to feed their starving children. At one time, I marveled at certain musicians or actors or politicians for "breaking into" the industry. Eventually I discovered that Colbie Callait's father is a publicist for a record company, that Emilio Estevez's father was a famous and respected actor, and that politicians either come from old money or climbed the ranks with someone else. All too often, it's not even who you know but those to whom you are related. After all, Max Detweiler wanted Captain George von Trapp to marry the Baroness Schrader to "keep all that lovely money in the family". Look at the Bush dynasty, and you can see each of the grandchildren eager to step into politics, and look at the Clinton dynasty for exactly the same thing. It's not just Europe where dynastic inheritance determines destiny; that trend has crossed the pond and permeated American society as well.
Many people are rewarded for the fortunate inheritance of good genes. Although we know talented people famous for their abilities, far too many famous people are famous for how they look or how they make others look rather than what they do. I mean how have the Kardashians made the world a better place? Too many women are famous because they are attractive. Too many men are famous because they are attractive. Even Doc Brown uttered the realization that Ronald Reagan, the actor, made a good president because he looks good on television. It's about how you appear. "It's not aptitude, it's how you're viewed" they tell us in "Wicked". Life is still about the pretty people, the popular people, just like high school. Frequently I look at people I know who eat whatever they like, exercise barely at all, and either look fantastic, run long distances, or both. My hiking buddy told me that I'd probably have to get below 5% total body fat in order to even stand a chance at washboard abs, but that's not healthy. Meanwhile, women drool over guys who look good, not because they can hike 23 miles from end to end of Zion National Park in 12 hours like I can but who look good because they won the genetic lottery. That's not the genetic inheritance I won, and it's not the genetics that ought be rewarded, but all too often it is. Now that human survival isn't a matter of protecting and providing for your family, it became a matter of cash and charisma. My skills and talents impress women in their 50s who have finally figured it out, but the young women my age drool over the guy who just bought a used Saturn Skye convertible or Zac Efron for his abs or who takes them to $200/plate dinners or who will jump into bed with them. Only one woman seemed interested in me for who I was, and fortune apparently had other plans for us.
The rest of people are rewarded for being in the right place at the right time. Sometimes, it's completely dumb luck, like the person in front of you who wins a prize for being the 1,000,000th customer. Sometimes it's because they say the right thing to the right person, because they act before you do, because they are willing to do things or say things you aren't comfortable doing. Risk often meets reward, but if not for bad luck I probably wouldn't have any luck at all. Back during the first Obama term, I gambled on WaMu when their stock tanked and bought 500 shares, knowing that if they recovered like "all the other banks had", I would make out like a bandit. Instead, Joe Biden created a run on the bank, and my 500 shares are now worth $0.71 which means I lost. The outgoing Health and Safety officer on campus told me that she met her husband entirely by luck. He was a mechanical engineering major, and she was a biochemistry major, but they met in psychology, did a project together, and the rest is history. Even Michael Buble sings "I guess it's part timing and the other part luck". Usually I meet people I find interesting after the chance has passed, because they already married someone else or because they already got knocked up by another guy, or because, as is often the case, I'm the "wrong religion" or "too old" as if I can do anything about my genetics, my age, my height, or whatever. I missed a deadline for a job at the national tree nursery that I would have probably loved, and my ex wife took me back to court six years ago, forcing me to withdraw an offer on the house I would have preferred. So someone else ended up there, and I tell myself that if it was important it would have worked out differently. God has a plan for me too.
I know this sounds cynical, and I know it's overly assumptive, but I can only speak to the experiences I know. I've done the best I can with what I have, and I have very little to show for it. When I mentioned it in Sunday School a few weeks ago, one of the young ladies pointed out that I "have a testimony", and one of the congregational leaders told me that because I'm still here that shows a lot. I suppose I am fortunate that that's true, because most men in my position actually abandon faith and God and turn to liquor or women or other forms of debauchery when they don't get what they think they deserve. Well, I know there is a God. I know it, and I know that God knows that I know it, and so I can't deny it. Sometimes I pray for blessings that look like blessings because I'm tired of blessings disguised as trials, but I really do have everything I control under control. In that way, I am fortunate, and so I hope that good fortune will follow the ways in which I am blessed where I am not lucky.
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