:quality(70):focal(278x110:288x120)/cloudfront-us-east-1.images.arcpublishing.com/shawmedia/67PBMCY4GGHXG55MQTLRKVXCYM.jpg)
Life might not be predictable, but television drama often is.
Let me describe the scene we often see. We get to know and become attached to the main characters, but then there is this special emotional moment between two of the characters. Something is said or done, and there’s a sudden bond between them. And there’s hope for more.
That’s when my wife turns to me to say one word that I already know is coming: “Dead.”
Sometimes I say it first, but we both have come to recognize those revealing moments in a TV drama that are actually setting the stage for one of the characters to get killed off.
We laugh about it, but too often, I sense this feeling of doom in my real world. Call it twisted superstition. I am not comfortable even talking about it because it enhances a sense of irony.
It’s like waving goodbye to someone at the airport and saying, “Don’t worry. It’s been a long time since this airline has had a plane crash.”
Yeah, maybe irony is the keyword here. I was in the news business for so long, it shouts at me because I have seen many ironic twists in tragic news stories. People who die in auto accidents on their birthday are a prime example.
So I find myself imagining tragic headlines in my own life. That is why I try to be careful about what I say out loud. (And yeah, I am thinking it anyway.) I think superstitions sneak into our thoughts whether we invite them or not. But it’s not my intent to worry you.
Actually, I want to flip the coin on the whole ironies in life thing. I grabbed this thought from a Facebook post. (Yes, I do that a lot.) But it has me thinking about the detours in life. The roads taken, but more so the roads not taken.
The post kicks off with a quote from Winston Churchill, who said, raising his glass, “I prefer not to wish anyone health or wealth – but only luck. Because most people on the Titanic … were both healthy and rich. But very few of them were lucky.”
Many on the Titanic were in the wrong place at the wrong time. That’s how luck can work, or call it fate, kismet, karma, whatever. Things happen for a lot of reasons, many of which we cannot control. (Speaking of irony, the Titanic had earned the reputation of being “practically unsinkable.”)
Then, the Churchill quote was followed by these examples of amazing good luck:
“A senior executive survived the 9/11 attacks because he took his son to his first day of kindergarten. Another man lived because it was his turn to grab doughnuts. One woman survived because her alarm didn’t go off. Someone else was late because of a New Jersey traffic jam.
“One missed the bus. Another spilled coffee and had to change clothes. ... A man wore new shoes to work that day. On his way, his feet hurt. He stopped at a pharmacy to buy Band-Aids. That’s what saved his life.”
The person who wrote the original post came to this conclusion:
“Now, when I’m stuck in traffic … when I miss the elevator … when I forget something and have to turn back … when my morning just doesn’t go as planned … I try to pause and trust: Maybe this delay is not a setback. Maybe it’s divine timing. Maybe I’m exactly where I’m meant to be.”
Well, we often don’t see the alternatives, do we? I don’t really know if that flat tire was a blessing. I’m left with that worn-out saying: “It is what it is.”
But know this. If I ever say to you, “Good luck,” I really mean it.
• Lonny Cain, retired managing editor of The Times in Ottawa, also was a reporter for The Herald-News in Joliet in the 1970s. His PaperWork email is lonnyjcain@gmail.com. Or mail the NewsTribune, 426 Second St., La Salle IL 61301.