LUCKISM® AND THE VACATION

 Following LUCKISM®, the religion/philosophy

I am designing, means paying close

attention to the operation of chance in

our lives, accepting its interference

with our plans and, at best, deriving energy 

and encouragement from interacting with it, or, 

at least, developing acceptance of the

things we cannot control. 

Here is my attempt to look back on the 

vacation just completed in the light of 

these principles. This account is limited to

a few major points at which unpredictable 

chance impacted our trip.

First, it should be noted that this is a period

in history when "vacations" into space are

being touted. 

An unspoken but fundamental

aspect of our vacation is that it was planned

to visit locations on the planet Earth where 

the operation of natural chance is primary.

This conforms to the Luckist belief that placing 

oneself in a condition in which all life 

functions are dependent on machines is

undesirable. (Yes, this makes airplane travel

and scuba diving somewhat undesirable.)

Our original plan was to visit Copenhagen

and Stockholm with short excursions to islands

in Denmark and Sweden. After completing

airline, hotel and a few restaurant reservations

( a very demanding and time-consuming task)

chance intervened when Sweden closed its borders

completely to US citizens, even those who were

triply vaccinated against Covid.

That led to us substituting Italy for Sweden,

specifically, Cinque Terre in the northwest

and Calabria in the southern "toe."

The plan had us flying out of Calabria at the end,

first to Rome on Alitalia and thence back

to Copenhagen.

Alitalia was scheduled to go out of business two

days after we used them to leave Calabria.

As chance would have it, they cancelled that

flight and compounded the cancellation by

also mistakenly cancelling the tickets we had 

to fly to Calabria in the first place from Genoa

(a situation we had to deal with when we arrived

at the airport in Genoa, luckily solved by buying

new tickets to Calabria.).

The most distressing chancy event occurred at 

Copenhagen airport, prior to the SAS flight

to Genoa, almost making us cancel

the entire Italian portion of our trip.

We had taken the required Covid tests for 

entry into Italy but we did not know that

we also had to fill out "Personal Locator Forms"

on line. The form was impossible for me to 

complete on my phone, even after 4 or 5

attempts and SAS personnel said

they were not permitted to help.

I invite you to examine the form at

https://app.euplf.eu/#/

Anyway, at the last minute our desperate

plea was answered by them and they

filled it out. Then we could check in and

make a mad dash through security, where,

to their credit, the Danes made no objection

to our jumping to the front of the line,

Emma left her pocketbook behind 

and a helpful security official worked to

find it. Meanwhile, I dropped my passport 

while dashing through the shopping center that 

is de rigueur these days on the way to the gates 

and a passerby called it to my attention. I ran 

ahead and stalled the gate person while the 

search for Emma's pocketbook was going on.

(The distances involved here were the equivalent

of many city blocks.)

Emma arrived and the gate person opened

the security doors which had already closed

and we got on the plane. Miraculously,

our luggage also arrived with us.

Chance reared its head in Calabria when,

on our way back to our hotel in Tropea

from a sunset at Capo Vaticano we had a

flat tire and Emma had to drive the last 10 km.

as the air in it went down to nothing.

Near the hotel the police escorted us into

the garage. Avis was unable to fix it or get us 

a new car for the last 4 days of our stay.

Our plan two days later to take the train

for a day trip to Scilla had to be cancelled

due to a one-day national labor strike

in all forms of public transportation.

Earlier, in Cinque Terre, storm warnings

(which they take very seriously since 

two of the towns were heavily damaged

in 2018) curtailed our activities on one of the 

five days we were there.

Let me conclude with the 800 Danish Kroner

(equal to about US$125)

that Emma found at her feet when we were

taking our first walk in Copenhagen.

END