I can’t help it if I’m lucky...

serendipity or dumb luck

We began our married life in a small apartment in Nob Hill. A charmed year in a city that had no idea what the future held--a perfect allegory for a young couple smitten with the history and promise of the city by the bay.

Walking was our preferred mode of transportation. The small Jetta was scurried around town in search of parking whenever we relied on getting across the city. Parking on steep inclines and declines and timing our return to the city just as a parking restriction was about to time-out was an art—but also a pain in the ass.

I don’t recall exactly what I did at Terrapin Technologies but I worked there in the 90s. The South San Francisco location was a drive requiring traveling by car.

Although not an official soundtrack I remember a lot of the music we listened to in those days. In the lab, a favorite was by Offspring—”You gotta keep ‘em separated” as we separated chemicals by chromatography.

On the drive in and out —it was Hootie & the Blowfish. I loved this band. Maybe because I ran into Darius Rucker in an airport and he was just as cool as I’d hope he would be but also because our friend Eric had gifted me the cassette.

Strangely there was a line I misunderstood until I was well…today years old. The exact mondegreen has long been forgotten but the actual line included Bob Dylan and a lyric.

Well there's nothing I can do
I only wanna be with you
You can call me your fool
I only wanna be with you

Put on a little Dylan sitting on a fence
I say that line is great, you ask me what it meant by
Said, I shot a man named Gray, took his wife to Italy
She inherited a million bucks and when she died it came to me
I can't help it if I'm lucky—hootie & the blowfish, Only Want to be With You

Was it yesterday? If not, it was certainly in the last few days that I heard a Dylan tune. I am familiar with the usual canon but had never listened intently to Idiot Wind. For a moment I was disoriented. Alexa confirmed that Bob Dylan had claimed this song on an album in the 70s so what was happening. I knew Hootie & the Blowfish wouldn’t have been so bold to plagiarize a lyric so went back and discovered the actual reference in the song. But for a minute I was gobsmacked.

Someone's got it in for me
They're planting stories in the press
Whoever it is I wish they'd cut it out quick
But when they will I can only guess
They say I shot a man named Gray
And took his wife to Italy
She inherited a million bucks
And when she died it came to me
I can't help it if I'm lucky—Bob Dylan, The Idiot Wind

Luck is a fickle favor. I know being in the right place at the right time has certainly afforded me opportunity but often we ignore the penumbra. What has to be sacrificed? Is the character in Idiot Wind guilty, lucky, or a little bit of both?

“Luck is not chance, it’s toil; fortune’s expensive smile is earned.”—Emily Dickinson.