I left home for work this morning at 11:13AM and figured I'd have enough time to stop for an iced capp on my way to work. I knew that if I could make it on to the highway by 11:20, that I'd make it in time. Usually it takes about 4 minutes to get to the tims and another 3 to buy it and bounce. There was an unusually higher than normal number of cars on the street and with the numerous stop signs and signal lights, it was 11:20 by the time I made it to tims. I got my small iced capp with whipped cream, ahh heaven, and by the time I hit the highway, it was 11:24. That mean't I had exactly 6 minutes to get to work or I'd be deducted 15 minutes.
15 mins = $3, I did the math in my head and dismissed the idea of speeding to save $3. And then I remembered, it's pretty much the cost of an iced capp. Screw it, I was definitely going to make it on time. So I made my way to the left-most lane a.k.a. the fast lane and steadily increased my speed to 120 km/hr. That's it. I'm not going past this, I thought to myself. And then I noticed that there was a white car tailgating me from behind. I'm not into getting white things into my behind. Pun intended. So I steadily increased my speed to 130 km/hr. I looked over at the time and it was 11:27. Crap, I still had a solid 7 km to go. OK, white man, you wanna get ahead of me? So I sped up until I hit 150 km/hr. I look back and see the white car still tailgating me. Isn't it illegal to go at 150? I'm thinking to myself. There is no way I'm going beyond 150. The time is now 11:29. I look at my rearview mirror to see red and blue lights flashing from the top edges of the white car.
Crap. My heart starts beating at 200 bpm. I am so late now.
I slow down to 100 and switch lanes, all the while thinking I'm screwed and wondering how I'm going to explain this one to my parents. As I switch lanes, the white car zooms past me.
How I escaped that one? Beats me.
Luck?
***
It is the end of April, I am sitting in the new cafe that is open in the IC building at UTSC when Nilo walks in with a friend of his. I'm working on some essay question prep for my POLB91: Comparative Politics of Development final when Nilo sits across from me with his friend. After some formal introductions, we chit chat for a bit and then decide to head out to the library. As we make our way out of the cafe and through the doors, I pressed the button for the doors to open automatically and stood before the doors and said, "Ah, doors are always opening for me", and walked by with a bounce in my step and my head held high.
"Have you ever heard of pronoia?", asked Nilo's friend as we waited to cross the street by the signal lights.
"You mean paranoia?", I replied.
"No, no. Pronoia", he said.
After digging through my mental dictionary to no avail, I figured it was best to listen to what he had to say.
Pronoia, he explained, was the opposite of paranoia. Paranoia is the sense that everything in the universe is conspiring against you. Pronoia is the opposite, it is when the universe is conspiring in your favour to give you what you want.
I thought he was complimenting me, so I thanked him.
And he sternly told me that it was not a compliment.
Did that mean I was cocky? That I thought the world revolved around me? That everything and everyone worked such that it benefitted me?
To be honest, I can be a bit cocky at times, but only in the presence of my best friend and no one else. And most of the time, it's with great sarcasm. So I took his comment with a grain of salt. And moved on.
***
I pulled up into the parking lot at my workplace at 11:32AM and knew that I had one minute to get to the punching machine. My usual spot close to the doors was taken. OK, I was definitely not gonna make it on time. So I parked in a corner and made my way to the doors, up the stairs, and through the hallway. I was dwelling on the loss of $3, in other words, the money I would've spent on an iced capp. I finally got to the machine with a minor heartbreak, pulled out my card and noticed that it was 11:33 AM. HUH? I dropped in the card, waiting for the clock to change to 11:34 AM, the card came out and read 11:33.
God saved the queen, I whispered to myself as I walked in and settled down by my cubicle.
I sat down and told Connor--my co-worker--about my eventful morning, and he replied with "you got real lucky!"
Lucky? TWICE in a row?
No. This had to be more than luck. I was suffering from serious pronoia.
So what is luck? According to dictionary.com, it is the force that seems to operate for good or ill in a person's life, as in shaping circumstances, events, etc.
And pronoia?
I couldn't find it on dictionary.com but according to wikipedia, pronoia describes the sense that there is a conspiracy that exists to help the person. It is also used to describe a philosophy that the world is set up to secretly benefit the person.
Now.. what about karma?
According to dictionary.com, karma is the cosmic principle according to which each person is rewarded or punished in one incarnation according to that person's deeds in the previous incarnation.
Despite that wordy definition, we've all experience karma in action in our own lives and I, for one, am a strong believer in 'what goes around comes around'.
Luck. Pronoia. Karma. What do these three entities have in common?
That you are what you emanate. And that you create your destiny. In other words, you create your own luck. Just like you create your own karma, good or bad.
Think of it as zero sum. You do good, you get karma plus points. You do bad, you get karma negative points. And those points will find a way to neutralize one way or another, by returning those plus or negative points back to you in the form of a favourable or unfavourable circumstance. Luck is used to describe an indescribable event or circumstance that has no logical explanation. Meditate on this. What is luck?
Luck is karma.
You create your own luck.
And how that 'luck' is returned to you is decided by that higher power, it comes in handy when you need it. Like this morning, I had a balance of karma plus points and that higher power decided that it wanted to cash in. Twice.
Was I lucky?
Was it karma?
Am I still suffering from pronoia?
Yes, yes, and yes. For they are one and the same.
P.S.: Speeding is illegal and I don't encourage it. I was sharing an experience and know that that will never happen again. Be responsible drivers! Please.
15 mins = $3, I did the math in my head and dismissed the idea of speeding to save $3. And then I remembered, it's pretty much the cost of an iced capp. Screw it, I was definitely going to make it on time. So I made my way to the left-most lane a.k.a. the fast lane and steadily increased my speed to 120 km/hr. That's it. I'm not going past this, I thought to myself. And then I noticed that there was a white car tailgating me from behind. I'm not into getting white things into my behind. Pun intended. So I steadily increased my speed to 130 km/hr. I looked over at the time and it was 11:27. Crap, I still had a solid 7 km to go. OK, white man, you wanna get ahead of me? So I sped up until I hit 150 km/hr. I look back and see the white car still tailgating me. Isn't it illegal to go at 150? I'm thinking to myself. There is no way I'm going beyond 150. The time is now 11:29. I look at my rearview mirror to see red and blue lights flashing from the top edges of the white car.
Crap. My heart starts beating at 200 bpm. I am so late now.
I slow down to 100 and switch lanes, all the while thinking I'm screwed and wondering how I'm going to explain this one to my parents. As I switch lanes, the white car zooms past me.
How I escaped that one? Beats me.
Luck?
***
It is the end of April, I am sitting in the new cafe that is open in the IC building at UTSC when Nilo walks in with a friend of his. I'm working on some essay question prep for my POLB91: Comparative Politics of Development final when Nilo sits across from me with his friend. After some formal introductions, we chit chat for a bit and then decide to head out to the library. As we make our way out of the cafe and through the doors, I pressed the button for the doors to open automatically and stood before the doors and said, "Ah, doors are always opening for me", and walked by with a bounce in my step and my head held high.
"Have you ever heard of pronoia?", asked Nilo's friend as we waited to cross the street by the signal lights.
"You mean paranoia?", I replied.
"No, no. Pronoia", he said.
After digging through my mental dictionary to no avail, I figured it was best to listen to what he had to say.
Pronoia, he explained, was the opposite of paranoia. Paranoia is the sense that everything in the universe is conspiring against you. Pronoia is the opposite, it is when the universe is conspiring in your favour to give you what you want.
I thought he was complimenting me, so I thanked him.
And he sternly told me that it was not a compliment.
Did that mean I was cocky? That I thought the world revolved around me? That everything and everyone worked such that it benefitted me?
To be honest, I can be a bit cocky at times, but only in the presence of my best friend and no one else. And most of the time, it's with great sarcasm. So I took his comment with a grain of salt. And moved on.
***
I pulled up into the parking lot at my workplace at 11:32AM and knew that I had one minute to get to the punching machine. My usual spot close to the doors was taken. OK, I was definitely not gonna make it on time. So I parked in a corner and made my way to the doors, up the stairs, and through the hallway. I was dwelling on the loss of $3, in other words, the money I would've spent on an iced capp. I finally got to the machine with a minor heartbreak, pulled out my card and noticed that it was 11:33 AM. HUH? I dropped in the card, waiting for the clock to change to 11:34 AM, the card came out and read 11:33.
God saved the queen, I whispered to myself as I walked in and settled down by my cubicle.
I sat down and told Connor--my co-worker--about my eventful morning, and he replied with "you got real lucky!"
Lucky? TWICE in a row?
No. This had to be more than luck. I was suffering from serious pronoia.
So what is luck? According to dictionary.com, it is the force that seems to operate for good or ill in a person's life, as in shaping circumstances, events, etc.
And pronoia?
I couldn't find it on dictionary.com but according to wikipedia, pronoia describes the sense that there is a conspiracy that exists to help the person. It is also used to describe a philosophy that the world is set up to secretly benefit the person.
Now.. what about karma?
According to dictionary.com, karma is the cosmic principle according to which each person is rewarded or punished in one incarnation according to that person's deeds in the previous incarnation.
Despite that wordy definition, we've all experience karma in action in our own lives and I, for one, am a strong believer in 'what goes around comes around'.
Luck. Pronoia. Karma. What do these three entities have in common?
That you are what you emanate. And that you create your destiny. In other words, you create your own luck. Just like you create your own karma, good or bad.
Think of it as zero sum. You do good, you get karma plus points. You do bad, you get karma negative points. And those points will find a way to neutralize one way or another, by returning those plus or negative points back to you in the form of a favourable or unfavourable circumstance. Luck is used to describe an indescribable event or circumstance that has no logical explanation. Meditate on this. What is luck?
Luck is karma.
You create your own luck.
And how that 'luck' is returned to you is decided by that higher power, it comes in handy when you need it. Like this morning, I had a balance of karma plus points and that higher power decided that it wanted to cash in. Twice.
Was I lucky?
Was it karma?
Am I still suffering from pronoia?
Yes, yes, and yes. For they are one and the same.
P.S.: Speeding is illegal and I don't encourage it. I was sharing an experience and know that that will never happen again. Be responsible drivers! Please.