Tuesday, December 13, 2011

Luck

I read two interesting tidbits of thought about luck yesterday.

The first comes from Edwidge Danticat's very sad novel, The Farming of Bones. As two of the characters are in the process of fleeing from the horrors of an anti-Haitian massacre in the Dominican Republic, they meet up with a fellow refugee, who asks one of them a strange question:

"Do you have good luck?" Wilner asked Yves.
Yves laughed out loud. "Why do you want to know?" he asked.
"I like to know what kind of luck a man has had before I start on a journey with him," Wilner replied.

The second comes from a New York Times essay on Denver Broncos quarterback Tim Tebow, who has won a sudden string of games despite not being particularly good at most of the central skills of quarterbacking. What he IS good at is getting his teammates to believe that they can win. Frank Bruni writes:

Some people have what can be described only as a gift for winning. . . .This gift usually involves hope, confidence, and a special composure, all of which keep a person in the game long enough, with enough energy and stability, so that a fickle entity known as luck might break his or her way.

This made me ask myself whether I am a lucky person. I think I am. When Lori asked me, on the way to the airport on Sunday, if I had checked the status of my flight, at first the question surprised me. No, I hadn't checked. I knew it would be on time. I fly constantly, at least once a month, and my flights are always on time. (Well, except when they aren't.) In the same way, I'm never sick (except when I am.) I've had a fairly charmed writing career, publishing 45 children's books in the course of some 30 years.

But lately I've felt a tad discouraged about my career. My most recent books haven't gotten many reviews - the reviews they got were lovely, but there were so few of them. Am I being ignored, as a new young generation of authors arrives on the scene? And I haven't even been writing much since I arrived at DePauw. Am I burned out? Washed up? Or whatever fiery or watery metaphor you want to employ?

Well, I'd better not be! Because that Frank Bruni quotation reminded me, that if 90 percent of success is showing up, so is 90 percent of luck. He practically defined success as just hanging in there long enough for luck to kick in.

So, hang in there, my lucky darlings. And here, of course, I'm talking both to you, and to myself.

15 comments:

  1. Thanks, I needed that today with babe 2 close on the way! Amanda

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  2. This is a very exciting time for you, dearest Amanda, Michael, and Henry!

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  3. Thanks, I love this post!

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  4. Great post, Claudia. I've been feeling discouraged myself -- wondering why I keep working on "my" books when ghostwriting other people's books is so much more profitable. I needed to be reminded about luck (& success) being in the showing up.

    Laurie

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  5. As a runner "Luck" is an ever present blessing and curse - You've got weather to deal with and changes in your energy level - and these things are often out of your control. I've been thinking about luck a lot as I embark on my training for the Boston Marathon and find myself sidelined with an injury. Bad luck? Who knows. Perhaps it will all turn out for the best in the best of all possible worlds ;) Luck, it seems, depends a whole lot on what you do and do not pay attention to.

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  6. Very much enjoyed this post, Claudia. I feel lucky that I stumbled upon it!

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  7. Laurie, luck can be assisted sometimes by fairy dust, as we know. But while the fairy dust worked for me the first time, it did NOT work the second time OR the third, so I'm not expecting more than it can deliver. Caolan, I'm so sorry about your injury. I hope it will turn out to carry good luck hidden it somewhere. Mitzi and Pinky, thank you!

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  8. Claudia.....call it luck or good fortune or a blessing from the powers that be.....I needed a new voice in my life....and I am so glad it is yours! Hugs and Happy Days!

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  9. hmmm....I did not know I was so important to have such a long number to identify me! The previous comment is from shelly in greencaste. :)

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  10. Hi, Shelly! Hugs and Happy Days to you, too.

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  11. Hey, Claudia,
    Good thoughts here, but then you always have good thoughts. I am not writing much either, but that's a conscious decision to give myself a year on sabbatical. Also, Candlewick turned down my latest offering--it wasn't a complete manuscript. I have reached the point that having to spend a year or more constructing a complete ms. seems like an unfair deal, especially when it has every chance of being rejected! Ours is a whimsical business. Yet how many people are fortunate enough to do what they most want to do in life? So, yes, we have both had our share of "luck." Howsomever, I am one who believes that mainly we make our own luck...maybe just by hanging in there, as the fellow said.

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  12. Hey, Joan! Will I see you at Warrensburg this year? "Whimsical business" is right - and we have to go out so far on a limb only to find that it's going to be sawed off. I try to remind myself, but hey, I LIKE writing - I actually like the DOING of it. So I might as well be doing it, come what may.

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  13. Thanks for this post, dear friend. Life has gotten far too busy. Looking forward to Jan.

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  14. Me, too, Clara - pink rooms!!!!!

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  15. You might like this...or not... ;) http://www.chronicrunner.com/2011/12/whats-luck-got-to-do-with-it.html

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