Luck of the Evoloved

Survival is said to go to the fittest in little bits of conventional wisdom. It is what we have been taught since Darwin postulated his still controversial (and highly probable) theory. When times are easy, perhaps all but the lame or crippled will thrive; In hard times, such as famine, the strong may triumph of their weaker siblings; the best forager will eat; the lazy or simple will have trouble sustaining their bodies. It rings true enough to be acceptable. However, as with anything else in this crazy, mixed up, complicated reality we dwell in, this is too simple. There are others who will succeed along with the fit, perhaps even more often. And those are the lucky.

Luck is difficult to define and pin down. Like the soul, It doesn't really have a trace one can find. It is only loosely discussed as if it is a personified deity, or a part of your brain. Or, perhaps, it is mere happenstance. Those who are lucky today are lucky because someone else wasn't; but tomorrow, that can change, in the next hour that can change. In the next second. But, just as it is possible to flip 10 heads in a row (even probable if one sits with a coin for several days, flipping and flipping), eventually there will be that one who is successful for long enough that all of there accomplishments are due to chance. They got those heads. There are those who have stumbled upon success. The deer who happened upon the cherry bushes or the mosquito who bit while their victim was focused on a board game. They mayn't have been the strongest, but survive they did anyway.

And often this isn't really due to anything. If one walks by a mud puddle in the early summer, it will be pecked thoroughly by the killdeer and pigeons searching for arthropods and grubs. Most of them will be eaten, through no merit or lack-there-of on their end. And yet, their species is not extinguished. Many will survive. But it is hard to imagine it was on their merit. Their egg was only laid a millimeter off from the deadly beek of foraging bird.