Up and Coming Weekly is a weekly publication in Fayetteville, NC and Fort Bragg, NC area offering local news, views, arts, entertainment and community event and business information.
Issue link: http://www.epageflip.net/i/514143
22 UCW MAY 20-26, 2015 WWW.UPANDCOMINGWEEKLY.COM 4624 BRAGG BLVD. JUNE 26-27• 5TH ANNUAL BFBF MUSIC FESTIVAL- RALLY at Vander Civic Association Park. Gates open Friday at 5 p.m., Saturday at 10 a.m. Admission is $15/day $20 wknd pass. Benefits Bikers For Bikers Foundation. Find out more at Bikersforbikersfoundation.com. JUNE 27 • SWANKTITUDE FASHION SHOW at Fort Bragg Harley Davidson 7 p.m. $15/ general admin, $25/VIP. Find out more at www.fortbraggharley. com. JUNE 27 • FAYETTEVILLE AREA SOCIETY FOR HUMAN RESOURCE MANAGEMENT SCHOLARSHIP FUND RIDE at Arnette Park. Registration at 9 - 9:45 a.m., ride at 10 a.m., $10/rider, $15 with passenger. Meal provided. Benefits Fayetteville Area Society For Human Resource Management Scholarship Fund. Call 910-366- 3983 for information. PATRIOT GUARD RIDERS The Patriot Guard Riders is a diverse group of patriots from every state that come together to honor fallen soldiers at funeral services across the country. Visit www.patriotguard.org for more information about the group. t ra d e keyst ro ke s for p u tt i n g st ro ke s . Log on. Search some courses. Get the fun rolling. NC Tourism_Ad Layouts_4C_NEWS_9.88x5_FINAL.indd 4 6/4/14 4:48 PM Luck, what is it? We use the word all of the time. The other day I saw a car and a motor- cycle almost collide. Both the car and the motor- cycle started to merge into the same lane. The motorcycle was only a few feet in front of the car. The motorcyclist looked at his mirror and then looked back over his shoulder. There he saw the car and quickly moved back over and avoided a collision. In the past couple of weeks, I have seen several motorcycle wrecks that made me wonder why one person is lucky enough to avoid or survive a wreck and another one is not. We often intertwine the words luck and fate. The Roman philosopher Seneca the Younger said that, "luck is what happens when preparation meets opportunity." When you find a $10 bill, people might say you are lucky. When you break it down, several people probably walked right by it, but you were the one that saw it on the ground. You had to be at the right place just moments after some unlucky person dropped it. Chances are, if the person dropped the $10 bill and someone saw it, they would give it back to the owner. The person that dropped it would believe they were the lucky one because their money was found by an honest person. The lottery is another illustration. When someone wins the lottery, many would say they are lucky. Were they? The winner had to decide to play, get money, go to a store, pick a number and wait. When the numbers are drawn, the person hopes that their numbers match. At that point, either they win or they don't. However, what about those that did not check their num- bers? Lottery officials estimated that every year almost $800 million goes unclaimed. One of the largest unclaimed drawings was for $590 million. That person went from unlucky to lucky to unlucky all in a short amount of time and probably doesn't even know it. Now, what about those that didn't play? They have a 100 percent chance of not winning. So what is luck? Webster's dictionary says that luck is "the things that happen to a person because of chance: the accidental way things happen without being planned." In the book, The Survivors Club by Ben Sherwood, the author focuses on people who survived horrible ordeals. However, one chapter is dedicated to the "Science of Luck." Here, he argues that we may have more control over luck than we think and that gives us the edge when others do not have it. He examines, vision, education, observation and a few other things that set the survivors apart from those that perish. Richard Wiseman is the author of a book called The Luck Factor. Wiseman can tell how lucky someone is just by handing them a newspa- per. Through a series of tests, Wiseman shows that people we call lucky have a broader field of vision. Wiseman says that "Luck is not a magical ability or a gift from the gods." He goes on to say that, "... instead, it is a state of mind — a way of thinking and behaving." Back to our motorcyclist, he thought to look twice and he looked twice because he had trained himself not to trust his mirrors. His judgement and reflexes caused him to move back into the safety of his lane. Unlucky people don't play the lottery, look both ways, check their mir- rors nor look over their shoulders and lucky people do. Whether it is checking the numbers on your lottery ticket, seeing that $10 bill, looking both ways before crossing the street or looking over your shoulder before changing lanes, luck may not be your circumstances, preparation or fate but only your ability to tune your senses. If there is a topic that you would like to discuss you can contact me at motor- cycle4fun@aol.com. RIDE SAFE! Luck: What Is It Good for? by JIM JONES How much control do you have over your luck? It might be more than you think. JIM JONES, Motorcycle enthusiast, Contributing Writer. COMMENTS? Editor@ upandcomingweekly.com.