Survival with Serendipity

[Lori]

From another excellent book I'm reading - The Survivor Personality by Al Siebert:

What part does serendipity play in your personal plan of survival - in any encounter?

<blockquote>
<u>Walpole's Term</u>
The English writere Horace Walpole coined a word for the ability to convert what could be a disaster into good fortune. He named the talent "serendipity." His idea for the term came from his memory of an old Persian story he read during childhood about the "Peregrinations of the Three Sons of the King of Serendip."

The story is about three princes banished from their homeland by their father, King Giaffer. Each had received the best possible education, but their father knew they needed to be seasoned by real life. He used a trivial incident as an excuse to become furious at them. He had them thrown out with no servants, no horses, no jewels or money.

In their various adventures together, the three princes used thier powers of obsrevation and deduction to make difficult circumstances turn out well. As fairy tales usually go, so goes this one; each eventually married well, became emperor of his own kingdom, and reconciled with the King.

Serendipity is not good luck, it is, according to Walpole, an ability in which "sagacity is used to convert an accident into good fortune. According to Walpole, three elements must be present to qualify as an example of serendipity. (1) Something accidental must happen, (2) in response to which a person uses his or her good sense or wisdom, (3) to discover a beneficial outcome.

I've learned that the best indicator someone has a survivor personality is when they talk about their worst experience and then add, "It was one of the best things that ever happened to me."
</blockquote>

So - do you have a survivor personality? How do you handle adversity - and how does that indicate how you will survive during or after a threat to your life?

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Peace,
Lori
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[This message has been edited by Lori (edited August 08, 2000).]