Luck, Truth and the Hereafter

Luck is a subjective topic. Some believe in luck, others believe in the divine. I know that tragedy is bad luck; and good luck is a God-thing. What can I say, God has a better publicist than that other guy with the red cape and horns.

For the most part I am an up-beat happy person. People who know me personally agree with that statement. But those closer to me know that I have my dark days. This time of year can be difficult for many. As I've written before winter blues is a real thing. The days are short and the season long.

As a writer, you simply can't always be funny and cheerful. Most artists fluctuate between happy and sad, and reflect that in their work. Take music for example. A lot of musicians tell sad stories with their lyrics and melodies, and in-turn a lot of people love those ballads. It's because we are all on the same page with life's ups and downs, and sometimes you need to express the downs as well as the ups.

There are times when you hear a song, perhaps by Tracy Chapman, Eric Clapton or the late Jim Croce, and it just seems to hit a nerve. Tracy Chapman's "Fast Car" being a prime example. You have to stop all things and submerge in that feeling for a while. I suspect everyone shares these sentiments, because, presumably, we all have hard luck now and then.

Some people have more than their share of hard luck. I know it's not healthy to be overcome by sadness for the long term, but every now and then I like a nice slice of "pity pie", served with a healthy scoop of "self-doubt a la mode".


Sometimes I think I don't believe in luck because I don't have any. Because of my good Baptist upbringing I don't gamble. And that's a good thing because I've never won anything anyway. Except for the time I bought a Porter Cable router and received a notice in the mail saying I'd won a free Porter Cable sander. Awesome! I finally won something. Until I went to redeem my coupon and found there was an expiry date - past tense.

I've also bought some "sure-thing" stocks, which really is a veiled form of gambling for most people, and had them tank shortly after I bought them. My luck is so bad with stocks that I told my financial advisor (I'm his "Erin Brokovich" pro-bono client) that I should be one of those stock markers: If Scott buys a stock - dump it. Quick!

It's really kind of funny.

Particularly when you compare yourself with those that seem to have the midas touch. Everything they handle turns to gold. They don't seem to work all that hard at things, but nevertheless their ship comes in anyway. After I wrote my first - and so far only - book, Ontario Blue-Ribbon Fly Fishing Guide, I was on cloud nine. This was my proverbial foot-in-the-door to literary fame. Hemingway, move over!

I immediately drafted up some really great book proposals. One I thought was a no-brainer for a publisher: Extreme Fly Fishing. A book on fly fishing for all kinds of extreme fish: sharks, piranas, tuna, carp, alligator gar - with suitably extreme techniques. I never even got a sniff from a publishing company.

Meanwhile one of said publishers, published a book on trolling with a fly rod. Hmm, I thought. How can one write a whole book on that topic?

I guess this could be a comprehensive exploration of various types of trolling. Like trolling from a canoe, vs. trolling from a row boat, or motor boat. Perhaps a chapter could be committed to "trolling on the right side of the boat", and another to "trolling on the left". There could be an exposition on "trolling while eating a sandwich",  or "trolling while having a pee". (Which, for men, could be deemed "double trolling"!) Hey, what about "trolling while water-skiing"! Again, there's that "extreme" theme popping up again. Dang, it's just not fair. No disrespect to the guy who wrote the trolling book. He's done some good marketing for sure.

So after I got totally frustrated with my "extreme" proposal, I thought I should perhaps write something spiritual. After all, it can't hurt to have God in your camp. I came up with a blend of faith and fishing. Some of the disciples were fishermen. Jesus talked a lot about fish and fishing; fed people fish; had the disciples throw their nets on the other side of the boat to catch fish, and so on. So I approached the publisher from my first book, and pitched the idea of a faith-fishing journal of sorts. Perhaps some nice photographs accompanied by simple, reflective stories about how faith and fishing go together. I had a telephone conversation with the publisher and enthusiastically pitched my plan. Knowing he was a good Catholic I anticipated a positive reception. But just when I thought he seemed interested, he quipped, "If you can get Saint Peter to write the forward we'll print 10,000 copies on the first run!"

Wisenheimer.

I pitched a few other ideas all over the map for the next year or two. Right from Christian growth to spicy cop novels - and a few ideas in between. I quickly learned that rejection letters had a second paragraph that started with "however"; followed by a bunch of good reasons why the book - albeit a great idea - didn't fit their program.

This is a valuable life lesson. Whenever people start a conversation by praising you and your cause, wait for the "however" sentence before you jump for joy. Otherwise it's like a punch in the gut.

Do I sound depressed? I'm not. I'm just being real.

Sometimes I think we do our children a disservice by telling them they can be whatever they want. Like Santa and the Easter Bunny this might be fitting at a very early age, but later on it becomes a stretch. I wanted to play hockey for the Leafs, like almost every other Northern Ontario kid, until I got cut from the PeeWee all-star team. How does this fit with my dream? I wondered.

I suppose the secret to what we call luck is completely out of our hands. We should do our best at our work - whatever it may be. And if you are blessed in some way for the good you do, bask in that moment.

Be honest with yourself and others. Success at the expense of other people is wrong.

It works though. And I do know people that have, and will, step all over others to get a leg up. This is wrong, and success in this fashion is not success at all. It's failure. Failure at fairness. Winning the gold on steroids really isn't winning. If it isn't stripped from you in this lifetime it will be in the next.

Of course if you don't believe in the hereafter that doesn't matter to you. But one of the things I have learned about truth after 30 years as a cop and 52 years as a human is that truth is NOT subjective. I believe in the hereafter and the next guy doesn't. One of us is wrong. Has to be. Our present culture - and I suppose every culture before ours - seems to suggest that "What is true for you, isn't necessarily true for me". This, like drinking from both sides of the cup, is not possible.

When it comes to mysteries about things like Creation, or who killed so-and-so, there is only one version of the truth. Some truths come to light in our lifetime. Others in the hereafter; or not. Depending on the truth about the hereafter. If you get my drift.