The word “luck” never settled well with me. Mostly because it suggests there is a randomness about life that is hard to bear.

I am up to my eyeballs in some misfortune or drama. And next to me is sitting pretty someone without seeming a care in the world?? Seems unfair.

However much randomness is part of our daily experience, I learned it is a sign of maturity to accept the uncertainty as well as what I think I know. What I know compared to what there is to know is like a salty tear and a vast ocean.

People drown in that ocean if they arrive at with all the cumulative knowledge of ‘what they know’ and deem that satisfactory to traverse it. I think that’s the difference between being ‘awake’ and being ‘woke’. Knowing what you do not know is the beginning of wisdom, at least according to Socrates. Huzzah!!

‘Pluck’ is an altogether separate word but closely related to luck, I imagine. One suggests randomness that may lead to hopelessness. I am an object of fate and powerless says s/he/her/them. The other suggests ownership in the face of uncertainty.

Pluck: spirited and determined courage.

Uncertainty awaits each. Luck is for the clueless who wander vaguely a willing object of ‘fate.’ Pluck is for those who await with anticipation and humility- the great fortune and randomness combined in the vast ocean before us!