Just My Rotten Luck

When I look at my life I can't believe how often I am struck… by how fortunate I've been to have such rotten luck! Rotten luck to be born with faulty vision… how my eyes, without glasses, blur both night and day… Fortunate to see a different side of nature… from the landscapes of Van Gogh…to the gardens of Monet. Rotten luck as a runner to have had surgery on my knee… Fortunate to discover, once forced to walk, all there is to hear and see. Rotten luck not to be the football hero I once craved… with all the fame and fortune it would have brought… Fortunate to have become a teacher who learned from every student I ever taught. Rotten luck not to have been a playboy… traveling the world with no responsibility… Fortunate to have found the love of my life and together to have built a beautiful family. In truth that same rotten luck that made me a teacher even though the pay was low… gave me the good fortune to be around to watch my children and grandchildren grow. Rotten luck never to have written that great American novel never to have found the time… Fortunate to see, as I grow older, how I've lived a life in rhyme. Which makes me wonder as I look back on my life down every road that I have taken…around every turn and every twist…. If I hadn't had such rotten luck… look at all the things I would have missed.