Good Luck and Bad Luck

I’m pretty sure this story comes from De Mello but can’t quite put my finger on the source right now.

There was a man who bought a lottery ticket and won a sports car. As the vehicle sparkled in the driveway friends and family commented on how lucky is was to have won it and what a fortunate man he was.

‘Maybe’ he replied.

So he took his new motor out for a spin and ended up in an accident that hospitalized him. Friends and family gathered by his bedside and pointed out how unlucky he was and how unfortunate his circumstances.

‘Maybe’ he replied.

As he lay in the hospital word recovering his injuries a tropical storm blew in and the heavy rain cause a mud slide that swept his house away in an instant that would have been impossible to survive.

The next day friends and family came to visit and commented on how lucky he was and how fortunate his situation.

‘Maybe’ he replied.

It’s a great story because it points out how quick we are to judge any particular moment in our lives as ‘good’ or ‘bad’ when really we won’t know the truth of it until much later on.

Moreover it is that fact that nothing is ‘good’ or ‘bad’, they are labels we put on things and events which can be changed in an instant when we change our perception of them.