Oh lucky friends, what an unlucky era for you to have been born in! How much it seems that your luck is now entirely self-contained! You’ve sat on your luck, perhaps out of guilt… and you’re guilty of that! The fault of envy, now laid on the doorstep of those who inspire it! A world of prosecuting enviers indicting the envied!
So, who can blame you, lucky friends, when you feel compelled to wear a mask of disadvantage, when you accentuate the flavor of tragedy in every autobiographical sketch?
Oh, but the worst kind of conformity is when the lucky few try to fit in with the unlucky many! A generation of luckless leaders ensues. Out of modesty, luck hidden. You’ve heard of the blind leading the blind, but do you know what’s even worse? The unlucky leading the unlucky!
Like anything valuable, luck is rare. If good luck were universal, there’d be no reason to add the adjective “good.” Good is the gold mined from the depth of objective luck. Oh, but how much luck yields nothing but dull pebbles!
What’s needed now more than almost anything? A compelling story to inspire the lucky to use their luck! Stubborn pedestrians whose cars are filled to the brim with gas, and yet they walk in a day what they could’ve crossed in half an hour! Out of principle, they say (and I, being an absolute advocate of walking, let this be stated: this is very much just a metaphor). A lucky bus driver ensures many souls reach their home!
Woe to the lucky who have no compelling story to tell themselves regarding their luck, especially when born in a society pathologically egalitarian! That scarlet luck, out of self-defense, they instead seek to keep hidden.
Perhaps this is you: blessed with parents who love you, whose aim and stated purpose was to give you every advantage they could manage. And grown from that loving home, you’ve been blessed with keen mind and empathy of spirit. And yet, when you reflect on your life with critical eyes, you discover a recurring pattern of derailing yourself, as if on purpose.
Oh, but why? The scarlet luck you’ve sought to keep hidden. A world that teaches: all natural gifts can be no source of pride, especially those that distinguish you from a group. Conversely, natural gifts that align you with a group are to be more celebrated (insofar as the group is not proscribed or generally perceived as dominant).
Oh, friends, it’s periodically worth asking yourself: how much (of ourselves, out of short-sighted charity, humility) have we left undeveloped? If we passed over our most admirable traits… you think stunting your growth makes you a team player? But isn’t it an act of preemptive selfishness, taking back at conception what one day you could give back in realization?