A Comparative Study of Being Blessed and Being Lucky
Introduction
In one of the songs of Nicki Minaj, “Moment 4 Life” says a line that says, “No I’m not lucky, I’m blessed”. In some of her interviews, the singer has stated that she doesn’t believe in luck. She believes in hard work, and her success is a gift from God (RapGenius.com). The researchers had been attracted with this statement of hers because, truly, humans are blessed, and not lucky.
If someone sneezes or does something very good, people often hear someone say, “God bless you!” This is a phrase that asks the Lord to protect someone, keep him or her in good health, make him or her holy, and fill life with good and happiness. Centuries ago the causes of diseases were not well known, but people knew that sneezing often came before illnesses that could be life threatening. So, the immediate response was, “God bless you!” meaning, “God protect you from sickness and death (Orthodox Family Life, 1999).
In the late 15th century, the word “luck” came from the early Middle Dutch luc, from gheluc, which means "happiness or good fortune" of unknown origin (Dictionary.com, n.d.). People on the modernized time had been dependent on luck and aims for something without doing anything. It clearly shows that some people would risk money for something, like raffle draws, lotto draws and small town lottery, and do not work for their money to spend for their necessities.
Dictionary.com had defined luck as “(a) the force that seems to operate for good or ill in a person's life, as in shaping circumstances, events, or opportunities: With my luck I'll probably get pneumonia; (b) good fortune; advantage or success, considered as the result of chance: He had no luck finding work; (c) a combinat...
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...d rather than the thinking of being lucky just by chance that doesn’t have the probability to happen. And may this would create a bigger and wider understanding between being blessed and lucky to one’s life.
REFERENCES
Lindsay, M.(2013 May 28). 11 reasons you are highly blessed. Retrieved February 27, 2014 from Maurice Lindsay website: http://www.mauricelindsay.com/11-reasons-you-are-highly-blessed/
BBC News. (2011 April 6). Why do we believe in luck? Retrieved from March 06, 2014 from BBC News Magazine website: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-12934253
Dickow, C.(2008, June 7). Luck: has nothing to do with it! Retrieved from Catholic Exchange website: http://catholicexchange.com/luck-has-nothing-to-do-with-it
ODJ (2010, December 10). Luck or blessing? Retrieved from Our Daily Journey with God website: http://www.ourdailyjourney.org/2010/12/20/luck-or-blessing/
In the short story “The Lottery” by Shirley Jackson, the reader is introduced to a utopian community who practice the tradition of a lottery every year. At first glance, it seems like a nice day and the kids are just collecting rocks while waiting for their parents to arrive. All of the citizens show some excitement over the upcoming the lottery. The text states,
The short story ‘The Lottery’ reveals a village of 300 that assemble for a lottery on June 27th every year. The lottery has been held this day for years and years, and has become a classic tradition. The lottery itself is holy to much of its residents, like Mr. Watson, who states that the village in the north is a pack of young crazy fools for removing the lottery. “Listening to the young folks, nothing’s good enough for them. Next thing you know, they’ll be wanti...
We can transform our life by altering our thinking process, and the stories by Shirley Jackson and Chris Abani emphasize on changing the thought. Shirley Jackson’s story, “The Lottery”, conveys a great ironic tradition of a certain American community at some time in history, probably not that old. Similarly, “The Lottery” by Chris Abani also explores a similar tragic story about a loss of a life, and presents the life and survival as a lottery, which is never certain. In these regards, both these stories express a common theme of a traditional belief and a tragic end of a life but in a very contrasting fashion and settings.
The case of moral luck was introduced by Williams Bernard and developed by Thomas Nagel in their articles respectively. Both raised the question whether luck can influence the judgment of morality. In this essay, the definition of moral luck and four kinds of moral luck by Williams and Nagel will be discussed through several case examples, and then followed with some arguments from Judith Andre, Donna Dickenson and David Enoch and Andrei Marmor who disagree with the concept of moral luck.
In today’s society we perceive the lottery as being a great fortune brought down upon you by Lady Luck. It is a serendipitous event, even if the person has done nothing to earn it. One would never see the lottery as an unfortunate occasion that occurred in your life because it is supposed to bring prosperity into your life. Also, one would not dare to think that winning the lottery would bring such repercussions as injury or death. In the short story “The Lottery” by Shirley Jackson, the author could have used Mrs. Tessie Hutchinson as the town’s scapegoat due to their reluctance to change traditions, her horrible work ethic, and minority status as a woman.
Its practice has been seen to be efficacious in healing and improving the quality of life of many people. Whether in terms of enhancing mental health or preventing illness, gratitude is one of life’s vitalizing ingredients. Clinical trials indicate that the practice of gratitude can have dramatic and lasting positive effects on a person’s life. It can lower blood pressure, improve immune function, promote happiness and well being, and spur acts of helpfulness, generosity and cooperation (Emmons & Stern, 2013). Emmons and Stern (2013) from their experiments, assert that gratitude has one of the strongest links to mental health and life satisfaction in any personality trait, more so than even optimism hope or compassion. They maintain that people who experience gratitude can cope more effectively with everyday stress, show increased resilience in the face of trauma-induced stress, recover more quickly from illness, and enjoy more robust physical health.
Hicks, Jennifer. "Overview of 'The Lottery'." Short Stories for Students. Detroit: Gale, 2002. Literature Resource Center. Web. 19 Feb. 2014.
The Lottery was a ritual that happened on June 27th of each year. Everyone would gather in the middle of the town and from there each head of the household would draw a piece of paper from a black box. As the story proceeds you can see that people were getting impatient and making remarks like "I wish they'd hurry (The Lottery, pg. 4)." Other people were making comments like "Some places have already quit lotteries (The Lottery, pg. 4)."
...that fate. Events that lead to other events will eventually lead one to their fate. “Oedipus the King” is a great play that sets an example of what fate is. Oedipus chooses to flee from home, in attempt to avoid the god’s statement of his fate from coming true. However, Oedipus’s decision for fleeing is what was necessary to make his fate come true. Undoubtedly, this is what was meant to happen because Oedipus allowed it to. Perhaps if Oedipus ignored the god and never did a thing then perhaps the outcome could have been different for Oedipus. However it did not turn out that way and the choices that Oedipus made is what led him to his doom.
I like to work hard for what I get in life. I don’t believe that what we get comes from luck or fate.
Choices: we all make them daily. Every decision that we make and every action we take has a consequence. At times, our expected consequences and the actual outcome of our decision can differ, from minimal to the extreme. Thomas Nagel wrote on the moral aspects of assigning blame or praise on the actions or consequence of an agent, even if the agent was not in full control over the action or consequence. This theory is known as moral luck. Nagel attempts to assign luck into some objects in determining the outcomes of actions. I disagree with his interjection of luck into the discussion, as I do not believe in chance.
Have you ever believed in a supernatural power or something that gives the ability to have an edge over others? In D.H Lawrence’s The Rocking Horse Winner, there is a young boy named Paul that has the ability to be able to see the future somewhat and win bets for a rather sad reason. All the boy wants is for his mother to believe that he is lucky and for her show him love and affection. Sadly, Paul works very hard to attempt to prove to his mother that he is indeed lucky, and to prove to her that their family is not cursed with bad luck. Then sadly, the mother does not give Paul the appreciation he wants until it is far too late and her son dies of exhaustion, all just for his mother to see that he is lucky so she would show him affection. Three messages portrayed in this story are, family, wealth, and luck.
tween choice and circumstance, or between brute luck and option luck, is not always easy to
We are all guided by the things that happen to us and what we think about them. If one were to think that everything happens for a reason, or if they thought everything is mere chance, this could influence the way they see it and in what
The world is made up of optimist and pessimists, and the survival of human beings and our well-being requires a balance between optimism and pessimism. Disproportionate pessimism makes life unbearable; however, too much optimism can advance to dangerously hazardous behaviors. The Optimism and pessimism approach is expecting a positive or negative future outcome, a recognizable way of reasoning is best conceptualized as continuity with many amounts of optimism and pessimism. Successful living requires a great balance between optimism and pessimism. Too much optimism may embolden one to take uncalculated risks that will lead to inadvertent and reckless behaviors, which may conclude in a catastrophe. On the contrary, worrying too much about