Luck Is Your Slave and Mine

...The magic wheel, in one of the great halls of Beirut, turns and turns. And in its strange, ceaseless turning, hearts and eyes turn with it, and ears catch its every rustle — for upon this wondrous wheel the fortunes hover...

...That night I was at a family gathering, and I noticed two faces in the company. One betrayed an unbridled nervousness: its features scowled, then froze in a frightening gloom; he knit his brow and clenched his fist, as though worry were eating him alive... And no sooner had the wheel made its final turn and the winners’ fortunes been announced than he flung his ticket to the floor and muttered nervous words, cursing luck and the lottery.

In the other face I glimpsed a contented optimism, a calm assurance, and something of unconcern, as though luck were at his beck and call: if it slipped from his hand this time, it would not slip away the times to come. Luck was his slave; he would lay his hand on it in some hour or other...

The announcement of the final results — his ticket a loser like its fellow — was met with banter and joking. He neither resented it nor flared up, but with much calm and composure he turned to us and said: “Our appointment with luck is next month.”

Truly, how strange some people are — or rather, how strange are some people’s stars! I know many of my friends, acquaintances, and neighbors who live life in assurance and calm, in a strange surrender, and their luck and their stars come to them at home, in their beds, at an hour they do not reckon. And there are others whose luck flees from them while they strive after it laboriously, and from afar they hear the cackle of that strange thing, laughing at them and then vanishing — and their hopes vanish with it...

What, then, might this luck be? What is it? Where is it gathered? How does it come? Is it mere passing coincidences that come into life blindly, over which we have no power? Why do some people drown up to their ears in blessings and good things, driven to them from every road... until they weary of them, while another set of people suffer the bitterness of deprivation despite vigil and struggle, as though ill stars lay in wait for them behind every door...

I do not know whether it is passing coincidences, or magical powers, that steer our fortunes in the directions they will; but I know that there is, above coincidence and above magical powers, something deep that springs from our very core — not from around us. From our souls,

from our unbending faith — and it is this that directs our fortunes and masters them to a far extent...

I do not know for certain whether there are magical deities holding a gilded wand that opens heaps of treasure before some people, while in the other hand they hold a black wand that opens before others black caverns holding nothing but worry and grief... But I know, and to a great degree I believe, that luck is the making of man himself — this creature who has mastered everything — and he himself can master his own luck...

In man — in every man — there is a strange sense, stronger than all his outward senses. Call it, if you like, the sixth sense. Its name matters little; what matters is that this sense, which exists in all people alike, is what directs our fortunes and rules over them. Some people believe in this sense, employ it, and profit from it; and some deny it, and their luck denies them... The source of this sense is the power of intuition and a fine, delicate sensibility; it quickens into action in some people and is absent in others.

Experience shows that this sense is all but missing in all people known for ill luck... and strong and effective in those known for good luck... Pessimism, hesitation, doubt, fear, and confusion of thought — all these traits accompany the ill-starred man, and they are apt to kill this sixth sense and paralyze it from any work; so misfortune inevitably settles upon those who bear them, and the more they complain of their bad luck, the worse and worse their luck grows...

And we see the second sort of people — those who command their nerves, keep their calm and their smile, trust themselves and all whom they consort with, and come to life with all the life that is in their veins! — these hand over the reins of their affairs to their sixth sense without hesitation or doubt, and the doors of good fortune open before their faces, and happiness follows their lead however they wish...

So if you wish to change your misfortune into good fortune, you have only to surrender and rely upon your sixth sense. And let us always remember that it can be employed, if it is given freedom for absolute action, like a strong, trusty, watchful guardian whose eye never sleeps, directing us and leading us to all that holds our happiness and our success...

No. Do not say: our lips do not know how to smile, and our past gives no encouragement, for there is not in it one flicker of hope or promise! This past of yours, of which you speak, is your sworn enemy; it bursts sour grapes in your eyes and blinds you... What have we to do with it, so long as there is a future holding armfuls of sweet hopes, to which a deep, warm faith joins us.