The dictionary says: ‘Lucky: “Occurring by chance and bringing happy results …….. or something worn for good luck.”’ The latter reminds me of a rabbit’s foot that I found in a box that contained my step-father’s wartime ‘treasures’; maps and black-and-white photographs for example, from his time in Force 136, behind the Japanese lines in Malaya in 1944. It was well worn and it indeed brought him luck in that he survived the fighting and the horrific jungle conditions. I sense that these talismans are not used as much as they were.
When I think of the word ‘lucky’ I immediately think of ‘Lucky Jim’, a novel by Kingsley Amis (1922-1995), first published in 1954. I have never read it but it’s considered ‘as the finest, and funniest, comic novel of the C20th.’ I had thought that Jim was his surname and that he’d been christened ‘Lucky’; actually his surname was Dixon! The American writer Percival Everett wrote a book called ‘I am not Sidney Poitier’. The main character had actually been christened ‘Not Sidney Poitier’ as he looked extraordinarily like the actor Sidney Poitier, who died earlier this year aged 94. His films included ‘Guess Who’s Coming to Dinner’, ‘To Sir, with Love’, ‘In the Heat of the Night’ and ‘Lilies of the Field, for which he won an Oscar.
But no! I am not called or known as Lucky, although a chap at the top of our road is so called. He has run three different food retail outlets in the same place over the last four years, so maybe his name does not reflect his business acumen?
Why am I scribbling this week about being lucky? Well, here in the UK the hot topic is the economy and the ‘cost-of-living’ crisis, driven by the energy hike caused by the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Unsurprisingly our government did not react well and we are now in an inflation spiral; currently some 10%! Wow! I bought my first house in 1979 …… when the rate was almost 14% …. and we all seemed to believe the best thing to do was buy, buy, buy as the cost of an item would be dearer the following day Bring out the Credit Cards! But spare a thought for those living in Turkey where the current inflation rate is 85% (October 2022); aren’t we lucky!
I am lucky to be alive. My own great-great-grandmother Sarah Fosbery, who had married when she was 17, died aged 39 but she had given birth to nine daughters and her body must have been physically depleted of nutrients. Her husband Francis went on to marry again and died aged 86 in 1897. Seems unfair, I hear you cry, but I suspect in some parts of the world today this is not uncommon, women simply the producers of children. Life expectancy has dramatically improved in developed countries; at the start of the C20th in the United States it was 49 and it’s now 77, although the Covid pandemic has caused a plateauing of this trend.
I am lucky that I live by the sea and breathe in the freshest air there is. Like anything you get used to it but when we were flat-hunting, exiting the railway station I was aware just how different the air was to that of Central London. For thirteen years I lived in a basement apartment in a large house next to the busy South Circular Road in Clapham. Brake dust, a dark residue comprising iron particles and carbon residue, was an invisible contribution to the air from the constant traffic roaring past and it seeped inside. It was noticeable as a slimy film that settled on books in my living room. Good thing I couldn’t see my lungs!
I am lucky to be healthy, at least today!! The pessimist would say you never know what lurks beneath the surface, but being an optimist I simply count my current blessings and know that in an emergency our National Health Service (NHS) delivers big time. There has been a recent television documentary about the night patrols of our local Brighton police, what they have to contend with and how they react. Sadly there was only one conclusion you could draw, that if individuals didn’t drink so much and if individuals were more sensible in the drugs they took, there would have been no content for a programme! In addition to this work-load for our police, 80% of the cases our paramedics attend are alcohol or drug related.
I am lucky, I think, that I decided to give up alcohol. In the summer, when someone in Portugal remarked: “ You don’t know what you’re missing!”, I know exactly what I am missing and know just how many times I have been badly affected by alcohol in my past – and that’s the times I can remember!! Misuse of alcohol, according to a recent study in the UK, costs the NHS in England £3.6 billion and alcohol-related crime in England and Wales about £11.4 billion per year. “Alcohol can cause serious upset to others around us, damaging relationships and careers ……”
I am lucky! I turn on a tap in our kitchen, in the bathroom, in the hall loo or outside in the garden and good, drinkable water flows. It doesn’t smell and I love it, although many other people spend huge amounts of money to buy bottled mineral water; in the UK in 2021 they bought 2.5 billion litres, apparently spending some £1.6 billion. Some 70% of the UK population live in areas where the level of Fluoride is ˂0.2mg and water companies add the chemical to around 1mg per litre, a level which is found to reduce tooth decay. Of course water, so vital to life, will become a resource people fight over, particularly as our changing climate causes population shifts.
I am lucky …… or is it that I make my own luck? More about luck later maybe.
Richard 2nd December 2022
PS The Four-leafed Clover is reported to bring good luck!
postcards 