Degrees of Luck

Luck is a funny thing... One man's luck is another man's nemesis. If you are in a coma, then 'luck' is to recover consciousness. If you are a well known film star, luck is to land that best-ever role. If you're a teenager without wheels, luck is to win even an old car. If you already have a car, then luck is to win a year's worth of gas and new brakes...

And so on.

The last few weeks have been strange... A brilliant friend of mine was diagnosed years ago with diabetes. He is a gifted stock trader and hopeless entrepreneur. A few years ago one of his legs was black and rotten from the knee down and, despite his doctor's advice to have the leg amputated below the knee, he dived long and hard breathing pure oxygen at the Hyperbaric Oxygen Centre until his leg was pink and healthy again. This last couple of years he's been working long hours and his foot and leg became gangrenous again. He feels lucky that the hospital only had to amputate part of his leg last week and he is learning to walk again already...