Do you believe in fate/protection?

[autienotnaughti]

So recently we managed to avoid what would have been a serious car accident. If we had been 30 seconds earlier we would have been hit and if we had been 5 minutes later we could have been seriously injured or killed .

A few years ago we had a serious house fire. We were all out the house, the dog was at the kennels as we were going away that night and we had a suitcase of luggage in the boot of the car.

Years ago a friend and I stupidly went back to some local men's house abroad late at night. Ended up making a run for it when they expected sex. Ran to a random street and a bus going back to the centre appeared.

I sometimes feel like someone is looking out for me and things have happened a certain way to protect me.

Has anyone else experienced this?

No, you were just lucky. So, for people, this happens to they aren't protected? It doesn't make sense and gives you a false sense of security.

No, I think most people just have a few close shaves and get away with it.

I've been held up at gunpoint in Durban during a business trip, and was on a full emergency landing into Frankfurt airport a few years ago. Apart from being scared half to death, I survived unscathed.

I've done the 'having to leave a man's house in a hurry' (I don't think it's uncommon to discover your date is actually a total shit) and I used to ride a motorbike as a teen so a few near-misses from there too.

Perhaps a better way to look at it is you aren't one of the unlucky minority who do not survive unscathed.

I get what you mean and I'm definitely not meaning people who incur bad stuff are in some way not protected.

I guess sometimes I've just felt lucky. There's been times I've struggled with money and then had a tax rebate or parents have gifted money. I guess I've felt lucky

This reminds me of the type of headline that reads:
‘Airline crashes with 300 on board, 1 person survives, it’s a miracle!’

No. I had a really serious car accident a few years ago. Other driver at fault. The police told me how lucky I was but I felt unlucky. It would’ve been better if it hadn’t happened at all.

No, just common or garden luck. And a bit of confirmation bias. Once you decide that maybe you're a lucky person, you'll be more inclined to notice and remember when something goes your way more than when things don't.

Exactly this.

This is why "lucky" people think they're lucky. It's an attitude/state of mind. Another person could experience the same set of circs and consider themselves to cursed as bad things keep happening (eg the fire; the men suddenly turning on you)

Who do you think is protecting you, and why you in particular?

@LostittoBostik

Fair point I guess having a house fire is unlucky in the sense it doesn't happen to many people.

Unfortunately I suspect warding off creepy men is a pretty common occurrence

Good point, maybe a higher power or a loved one ? My older sister died when I was 17 and my mum died 10 years ago.

IMO I’ve just been very lucky twice. First, many years ago, when the brakes on my little old Mini failed completely just after I’d been driving down a fairly steep hill behind a big lorry.

2nd, a couple of decades ago, when I missed by the merest whisker what must have been a pile-up on the M3. Late afternoon, blinding sun after heavy rain, and I’d just been thinking how the cars in the fast lane were driving far too fast and too close for the conditions, when literally as I passed it, the car on my right piled in to the next one so fast and hard, it ended up half on top of it. But I was gone too quickly to witness the aftermath.

No wonder I still have a Thing about ‘too fast and too close!’