There are times one believes he has control, on something, whatever. Sometimes you believe you can have control over the future, too.

Roll a dice now, you can’t say the outcome. Roll it for the whole day, you’ll have a statistic. Use your statistic tomorrow to foresee the result of another dice roll, you’ll see you just wasted your time.

Still, you believe you can have control. That’s the basic idea of the whole gambling. This time I had bad luck, next time lady luck will be on my side. The growing number of gamblers all around the world tells loud how much despair there is around, still, right now, this is not what I want to talk about.

It came in my mind about gamblers just because there are some lotteries which are said to have less chances of winning than being hit from a lightning.

Which is, by itself, a half nonsense, because chances of being hit from a lightning vary greatly depending on where are you living, but still, it’s not important, in my discussion.

We can all agree that being hit from a lighting isn’t exactly the first thing one should fear when go out at morning.

Like: “did I close the gas? Shut the door? Took the keys? Are there any threatening clouds around?”

Roy Cleveland Sullivan should have had. And probably he did.

He was a park ranger, in Virginia  (US). From 1942 to 1977 he’s been hit 7 times from a lightning.

It makes you wonder what “lucky” or “unlucky” mean.

First time he was on a watching tower in some forest… just doing his job. And flash came. He just lost a nail on his toe, in that first time.

In 1969 it was the second time. He was in his car, running up for a mountain. He got unconscious and he had his eyebrows burnt.

Third time he was doing some relaxing gardening, and Zeus stroke again, this time damaging his left shoulder.

Finally, good Roy started to get insane and believe that some kind of superior entity hated him.

Which, actually, can still be true, but best was still to come.

Fourth time came when he was on duty, again, and set fire on his hair: that’s why Roy started to go around with a personal fire extinguisher.

Fifth time, again in car. Luckily  he didn’t use much mass transit. This time, it was his hat to die. He “just” flew 10 meters or so away from the car.

Seventh time, he was just fishing. Some days in hospital and Roy was like new, again. It was 1977

If you are missing sixth time, I spared it for last. It’s the best of all.

He was in a picnic with don’t know who (I think his friends weren’t really happy to go around with him), when he saw a cloud. In that very moment, he started to scream and run, claiming that the cloud was chasing him.

You can run, but you can’t hide, some would say.

Actually, it was true. The cloud was chasing him, because what did happen was that a lightning fell, and injured his ankle.

After surviving seven lightning bolts, one could say that Roy was immortal, after all. For most of the people one is enough.

Roy, seven times, and still standing.

He died suicidal, poor man. In 1983 he shot himself… for a love delusion.

Now, do you think it’s worth some time to calculate the chances of being hit seven times from a lightning? It would be ridiculously low, still it happened. Poor Roy had control, over this? Or at least did he win lottery, for even one time?

Truth is: you can run, shake, shout or stand still. You can control your life just as much as a grain of sand controls the shore.