A word that within a word that's a word

...the word "luck."

I am guilty of using this word more than most. It usually has the word "bad" in front of it.

I have been accused (and rightly so) of having a shitty attitude when it comes to my views of life. And well, there are always right and wrong on both side of the dispute.

I would say that, for about 23 years of my life, I was EXTREMELY negative. Never was the popular kid, the most handsome, the coolest, blah, blah, blah. I was the square peg in the round holes, to be sure.

I eventually figured out that I wasn't a bad guy, and for a brief moment in time, folks liked me.

But my "luck?" Nah, that has always been fairly shitty...shitty jobs, semi crappy relationships, and so on.

But what is "luck?"

Steve Jobs wasn't "lucky" when he became one of the great innovators of the 20th and early 21st centuries.

Warren Buffet didn't scratch a lottery ticket to become one rich SOB.

I have a buddy named Erik, who isn't rich (at least last time I checked...hmm) didn't stumble upon a great wife, became a good dad, man of God, and raised what I teasingly call "the Latin Brady Bunch."

It wasn't "luck." They earned it.

Now...that doesn't mean that there are some folks who just seem to b f'd in this world...no matter how much they try.

I and my wife, despite all of our good fortune (and yes, despite my bitching at times, I am aware that I could be WAY worse off than I am, if it wasn't for the few who get it and watch my back).

But I have seen many poor people (and not broke...broke and "poor" are two different things) who are happy as shit...and I have seen many people with paper who kill themselves (see the recent NFL stories).

So what is "luck?"

I believe that God, well, just decides what pathway u r to walk while u r vertical and ventilating.

Some have the internal fortitude to become the Buffets and the Jobs of the world.

Others...well, they have to deal with what "luck" is handed to them. How they do so determines another word that irritates me...

...the level of "happiness."