One night, while I was waiting for the auto-gate to open so I can park into the porch, my car engine decided to go to bed before me. Later I found out it has something to do with the timing belt, but the first thing that came into my mind was, man it could have waited till I got my car into the porch. Then as I was heading back to my room, I realized how lucky I was to have it died right in front of the house instead of anywhere else. Being a rational and logical person, I do not believe in luck. Or rather, I do not wish to believe in luck if possible.

A rationalist will argue that I should have replaced the timing belt before it had a chance to breakdown. I agree that I could have prevented the manifestation of bad luck from having my car breakdown in the middle of nowhere. But what about those lucky moments you experience in life like having it break down right in front of your house?

The way to look at this logically would be to consider them coincidence. If something can go wrong randomly, it can sometimes get lucky too. My gripe is that a lot of people do not attribute their success to being lucky. The world is very complicated and so inter-connected that how can you be sure it was all you that made it happened?

So, yes I do believe luck plays a role in both successes and failures. My stand would be try to minimize the chances of bad luck from happening (e.g. changing your timing belt on time) and put yourself in a position that you can enjoy the benefits when the planets decide to align themselves for you but most importantly, never ever rely on it.

Little did I know how a timing belt can remind me of how lucky I am sometimes and how there are things that you simply can't do anything about. The Great Timing Belt indeed.