Dr. Carolyn Lee reflects on a different cliché each week. This week Carolyn explores the cliché, as luck would have it.

Learn more about Dr. Carolyn Lee on her biography page or investigate 29 more clichés in her latest book, Keep Your Eye on the Ball And Other Clichès to Live by. 

As Luck Would Have It

When my niece and nephew were five and three, my sister left them in my care one fateful afternoon. In an effort to keep us all busy and happy, I decided to take them to the mall, where we could go to the food court and treat ourselves to some Baskin-Robbins ice cream cones. I was a little nervous, because being in charge of young children was not really my area of expertise, but these were good kids, and—how hard could it be?

After indulging ourselves in several of Baskin-Robbins’ legendary thirty-one flavors, we got back in the car and headed home. I was driving my parents’ elderly Oldsmobile. This was in the mid-seventies, when there were no such things as seat-belts or car seats, and no rules about children being confined to the back seat. So there we were, the three of us, in the front seat. Kristen was sitting next to me, in the middle, and three-year-old Rob was to her right, by the door. I must mention here that, although it was possible to lock the doors by pushing down on the button just below the widow, all one had to do was pull up on the door handle, and the door opened.

That’s what Rob did. He pulled up on the door handle. And the door opened. This happened immediately after we had exited the interstate highway and were on the access road that ran parallel to it. At that point, my view of what was happening went into slow-motion. I became aware that the door had flown open. I turned my head in that direction, just in time to see Rob leaving the car, butt first, his arms outstretched in my direction, a terrified look on his face. Kristen began screaming her head off as I pulled off the road and brought the car to a stop. I did not immediately know if there had been any cars behind us or if Rob had been crushed beneath their wheels. I got out, walked around the car, and saw him crawling along the shoulder in my direction, no apparent signs of mortal or even debilitating injury. I swept him up in my arms and put him back in the car, closing the door and locking it again, knowing that locking it was pointless. I was shaking so badly that I could barely turn the key in the ignition, but, somehow we moved forward and found our way home. Kristen had never stopped screaming; Rob was crying, too, and I was actively quelling what could have become hysteria. But, in relatively short order, we were back to “normal,” outside in the front yard, hitting balls with a big plastic bat and drinking lemonade.

Rob recently celebrated his fiftieth birthday, and he has three kids of his own. I couldn’t help thinking on that occasion that he might never have had a fiftieth birthday, and those kids might never have had any birthdays at all if that day we went out for ice cream had turned out differently. As luck would have it, he didn’t open the car door while we were still on the interstate. As luck would have it, there were no other cars behind us.

We often don’t know when we are experiencing a good luck event. Some years ago, I had been recruited by the University of North Carolina to join their faculty and teach exactly the kinds of courses I wanted to teach. In addition, they had asked me to participate in their summer stock program and be willing to perform in their season of shows. My dream job! We pretty much sealed this deal over the telephone, but I wanted to go to Greensboro to check things out and make sure I was on the right path. When I got there, I discovered that the job they wanted me to do was nothing like the one that had been described to me on the telephone. So, in spite of the fact that my name had already been inscribed on a faculty mailbox, I said “no,” and drove away feeling confused and disappointed—and very unlucky.

It wasn’t until several months later that I was able to see how fortunate I was that the UNC prospect didn’t work out. Because, as luck would have it, another position became available to me, one that allowed me to live in a part of the country I loved, reconnect with old friends, and accept assignments in Switzerland, Australia, Japan, and Thailand.

Who knows what calamities we have avoided or what opportunities have come to us because of what appears to be sheer chance. I say “appears to be” because there is a school of thought that says there is no such thing as luck or chance or coincidence. It suggests that everything happens for a purpose, every incident is part of a pattern, a design, and maybe it is overseen by a Designer. I’m not sure what to think about all this. As I look back over my own “pattern,” things that once seemed random now look as though they might be part of a grand scheme. But, whether the things that have happened to me are deliberate and intentional or coincidental good fortune, I have reason to be very grateful.   

Want to Read More? 

Check out Dr. Carolyn Lee’s blogs on her website, she features a new cliché each week or you can order her new book, Keep Your Eye on the Ball And Other Clichès to Live By. Curious about the author? Read more about Carolyn here. We hope you enjoyed this article learning more about the cliché, as luck would have it.