Serendipity, straight up

by Geno Petro

Chicago Broker Owner Realtor | RE 2.0 Blogger

Author website

Upon self-examination I’ve concluded; were it not for a dash of serendipity on all the right occasions, sprinkled at just the proper times, I wouldn’t amount to very much in this world. The fact that I was born here in America and not under a bridge in Lagos is, in itself, a divine intervention of sorts. And if you don’t know of that particular Nigerian slum then let me just add that not being born at all would be a a more desirable volition in this writer’s mind.

what I could have received… 

what I got instead…

 

And still, it’s not enough. In comparison to the Bill Gateses, the Mark Cubans and even the Flavor Flavs of this world…I am but a speck. Dust doesn’t even know I exist. Okay, maybe I’ve got more going on than perennial homeboy Flav…

…but I’m sure there are many in this world who would argue agin. (On my own behalf though, if the ‘picture’s worth…’  cliche holds any water at all, I just saved the Recycle Bins 15,000 words.) I’m trying to be a greener man, thus the whole self-examination exercise in the first place. I’m just not a big fan of the color, I guess.

I calculated the amount of trees I saved by not succumbing to print advertising or mass mailings this year–and to honest, it wasn’t that much. In fact, I probably saved more of the rain forest by simply making half of what I made last year but even I can’t put enough spin on that reality to feel that I’m a better man for it. It kind of makes me sick, actually….

Until I hear about a place like Lagos, Nigeria and learn of the pure misery there. Now without getting into personal idealogical bents I will simply say that I listen to National Public Radio all the time, if for no other reason than to get my blood pumping and to know I have an opinion on a thing or two in this world, all specks of dust aside. Politically, I don’t like anybody and since, (according to those who profess their love for me), I’m wrong almost half the time anyway, I can safely go on record to say that there’s always a fighting chance of me being incorrect, at some level, on any given issue. So you see…by nature, I am Politically Incorrect. No further need to scold me in the Comment Section. I hereby confess.

Ellis Cose, a columnist and contributing editor at Newsweek Magazine, recently aired an inspiring and heartfelt piece on NPR about an African refugee camp boy named Abass Mohamed, and the ‘odyssey’ that eventually landed him at Princeton University as a freshman. He was taught without books for the greater part of his life. He learned his lessons scratched in the dirt. His most cherished possession was a kerosene lamp for studying deep into the night–in a hut. I could barely comprehend what I was hearing. I was ashamed of myself for the waste I’ve left behind over the years, the things I myself, have taken for granted, and my own internal stuggle to perform the next best, mortal act when the prospect of a quick buck was far more appealing. Yeah, I’m a realtor and I help people with their housing needs but I’d like to think I have more than just that dimension of humanity going for me.

So I make half this year than what I’m used to earning (and that’s what this is really all about, you see); the number is still several times more than my own father made during his best working years and a hundred thousand times more than the father of Abass Mohamed earns selling trinkets in the refugee camp market. It’s a pure mathematical phenomenon that I was even born at all, according to Dr Math at Drexel University (hey, I Google a lot). So my name won’t be on the front page (or even the back page…yikes!) of the annual CAR glory edition for 2007. So what? Mouths are fed under this roof.  Water needn’t be ‘gathered.’  No need for kerosene or lessons scribbled in the dirt. I’m not from an ousted clan or a stranger in a stranger’s land…

Rather, I should be thanking my luckiest stars that I’ve been given the breaks and the gifts that I have. I should stop every so often and take a look behind me rather than aspring only for what is ahead of me. I’ve been sprinkled with a dash of Serendipity at just the right times and hell, whether I like it or not; or think I should have been given more; or find myself pining for the days of insane pricing, cash only deals, and multiple offers… the moment of respite allows me to see who I really am and at the very least, keeps me from walking around with a stupid clock around my neck. Boyee.

Anyway, I’ll be vacationing in Hawaii until the middle of December. See you in two weeks.