Oddly Charmed Life, or just consistently lucky in chaotic circumstance?

Anyone who knows many of my life's details would probably have a view on that question. A coworker back in my more dangerous days commented that for an unlucky guy, I was the luckiest guy he'd ever seen

Part of his opinion was due to multiple car crashes in which people who towed the cars thought surely someone died in the wreckage, but I walked away. There were injuries but nothing major or even warranting a hospital stay. He was one of the group who tried to buy life insurance on me have me name them as beneficiaries.

So many second chances which prevented me from experiencing logical consequence of my dimwittedness. Like the time I was 7 and tried to cross a highway on my bike in front of a corvette going 50 or so. He slammed on his brakes and screeched to a halt. I somehow laid the bike down. Part of my bike and legs were underneath the front of the car, but it didn't touch me. I still remember the look of fear and relief on the guy's face when he ran to the front of the vehicle. He just knew he'd killed some dumb ass kid.

I still remember how shocked, happy and freaked he was. He was very nice about it, and I pedaled on to school as if nothing had happened. I never did that again. Not on a bike.

There was the time I fell in front of a speeding truck and no one can figure out how I didn't get run over. The time I slipped and my foot went under the running lawnmower but no injury. I had witnesses for those. No way I could duplicate any of them. Just lucky, and always I did something stupid.

I've been lucky with the cell phone when I left it on the roof of the car. One time it fell as I was driving but got stuck on the rear wiper. One time it bounced so that it landed sideways and lodged against the cross piece of the the roof rack holder--no actual rack just the two cross pieces.

Today, I almost burned the cabin down. I'll spare details, except, at the last minute I decided to combine today and tomorrow's travel and work so I stayed in. Had I not, I would not have discovered the smoldering, lightly flaming little rug on my deck. I won't explain the stupidity involved but I swear it wasn't as stupid as you might think. The point is that I was ready to leave and then thought, wait, why don't I arrange the next few days this way instead.

I'm not claiming magic or anything. I'm just saying I get bailed out in strange ways from events that could kill me, others or really make a very bad mess with a frequency that is somewhat unusual. I hope I quit doing so many stupid things because it is fairly certain that one of them will be my demise. When that happens, I hope anyone who cares will know that I was probably on highly leveraged borrowed time to begin with.

That is why I can't believe the universe is anything but somewhat benevolent. There are a multitude of other events which I could have listed but did not.

I'm so glad I did not burn the cabin, and possibly the whole mountain, to a crisp. This one was rather serious.

When I think about it, I know many people who've dodged bullets by dumb luck or whatever it is. It is amazing that people survive as long as they do. Maybe somewhere deep down most of us tend to think we'll be OK in spite of ourselves so we do really nutso things like form highly destructive weapons and armies, figuring we will again survive our own stupidity or negligence.

Whatever it is that allows so many to make it through circumstances where the odds are stacked against us, I am glad it is there. I only hope I'll learn to quit putting myself in situations which test my good fortune.

I used to think the war thing was just a ruse by middle aged and older men to get rid of the most virile and obnoxious of their kind so they'd have a better chance with younger women. I figure in times long past that would be likely. Now that women go too, I'm not so sure I see the charm of that plan. Maybe it is finally backfiring.

Many will deny it, but most men over thirty dislike their young brethren at a gut level. Not everyone, but if you pay attention you can see it. Perhaps that syndrome is a remnant of the past and we are evolving beyond it. I wish.