Don't Take Me Seriously - Book - Page 95
Serendipity doo-dah: The bounty of luck
“S
erendipity” can
be defined as
“the accidental discovery of something
pleasant, valuable or useful.”
And I think we’ve all
had some serendipity worm
its way into our otherwise
good-news-repelling existences.
Admit it. No matter how
sour your take on “They get
all the breaks,” there have
been a couple of times in
your measly little life when
unexpected good fortune
has found you.
Oh, sure, you turned it
ing disinto
coveries,
rubby accibish
dents and
with
sagacity,
your
of things
wily
they were
ways,
not in
but
quest of.”
serenJIM WALKER
Of
dipicourse,
ty at
the same could be said
least tried to help you.
about The Three Stooges.
The word “serendipity”
But be that as it may,
was coined by Horace Walwhen you toss “sagacipole (1717-92), who said
ty” into the definition mix,
he formed it from the Perthings get a little less accisian fairy tale “The Three
Princes of Serendip,” whose dental and a lot more interesting.
heroes “were always mak-
don’t take me
SERIOUSLY
In fact, another definition
of “serendipity” is that it’s
“a natural gift for making
pleasant, valuable or useful
discoveries by accident.”
That means you (or those
you envy) have a knack for
creating good fortune, or at
least being able to recognize it among the refuse on
the garbage heap of life.
These “serendippers,” as
I will label them, go around
finding the diamonds in the
rough, seeing opportunities where others don’t, and
generally cashing in on every little bug of luck or possibility that squeaks at them
from under a rock.
And, yes, we hate them.
You can always recognize a serendipper, too.
Their faces throw a glow
of “life loves me” that invariably makes the rest of
us fade into the shadows of
doubt and grumble.
And they flash that
Cheshire-cat smile of hope
and expectation for a positive outcome that is, well,
just infuriating.
Now, for me, serendipity has always hidden under
definition one, in which you
don’t actively seek it,
See WALKER, A7
