Two brothers were home for Christmas. One of them a total pessimist, the other a complete optimist.  The parents gave the pessimist several beautifully wrapped gifts. They dumped a heap of horse manure in the optimist’s room. The pessimist eyed his gifts suspiciously. The optimist dug enthusiastically through the odorous pile. When his mom and dad asked what he was doing he replied “Hey, with all this horse dung, there’s gotta be a pony in here somewhere.” 

I’ve had quite a run in the last few weeks. Sold our townhouse. Townhouse sale fell through. Went to Vegas for a wedding. Won $3400 at a slot machine. Came back from Vegas, rode hard and hung up wet. Two days later took a serious fall and cracked my head open on a piece of concrete furniture. Ambulance. Hospital. Deep wound. Injured shoulder. Tendon separated from a knuckle on my left ring finger. Sold our townhouse, again. Then, on my way to bed earlier this week a heavy, sculptured figure crashed down from above, scuffing my shoulder, missing my already injured head by just a few inches.

My wife said “You need to buy a lottery ticket.”

“What!?“

It’s all perspective.

In my version of this story, I fell and suffered significant injuries. In my version of this story I was very nearly badly injured by a falling sculpture. It was a string of bad luck befalling me despite the good news about the townhouse and the gambling winnings, leaving me wondering (if it is true that bad news comes in threes) just what was next?!

My wife Mac witnessed all the same events and saw it quite differently. She saw it as a sign of good luck. In fact, she saw several signs of good luck.

“We sold our townhouse twice, in two weeks. You won a truckload of money at a slot machine.“

“Sure Mac, I know that but I could have been seriously injured.”

“Tony, you fell and seriously injured yourself but you didn’t get a concussion, you didn’t lose consciousness, or brake your orbital bone, or your jaw bone or lose any teeth. You didn’t injure your shoulder or break your arm, or hip. It could have been so much worse. You should consider yourself lucky. You need to buy a lottery ticket.”

“But what about the other night. I could have been knocked out by that falling sculpture!”

“Sure you were nearly hit on your head by it and yes, it would have injured you seriously but it didn’t.”

“That is good luck Tony. You need to buy a lottery ticket.”

Perspective.

Look it’s not like I’m a diehard pessimist. Sure, I’m pretty sure you won’t like this blog. Bit worried that some of you will hate it or worse, all of you will hate it. Some of you may even unsubscribe or worse go on social and tell people I’m a total downer. But that’s okay, if you do, it’s not like I don’t understand why you don’t like me. You probably never have. I need to talk to my wife.

I don’t need a lottery ticket. I won the lottery long ago. She’s called Mac.