Odds

I'm thinking about odds today. We're all up against a countless amount of odds every time we leave the house. The odds that traffic will be bad or that you'll have car trouble, or worse yet be in an accident. The odds of catching the cold your neighbor has or running into your boss at Meijer when you're wearing your grungy sweat pants and you've got no make up on, the list could go on and on. Odds are a strange thing....I find it stranger still that we have language that revolves around the odds:

• "he's beating the odds"
• "against all odds"
• "the odds are in your favor"
• "odds are..."
  

what about the evens, what ever happened to those? Isn't it weird that we chose odds to carry so much meaning in our lives...I wonder where that comes from?

I'm thinking about odds for a couple of reasons:

1. My mom had a minor outpatient procedure biopsy today on a small area in her breast. She was told that it's unlikely that this type of deposit will be malignant. "the odds of these deposits being cancerous are about 1 in 5." So that's roughly 20% and needless to say we are hoping for the odds to be in her favor and for her to be part of the 80% majority. It's upsetting but also nothing to be overly distraught about at this point. I am worried but doing my best to think positively and hope/pray for the best.
2. One of my friends just had an interview in CA for a college teaching and research position he would really like to have. He works here in Ann Arbor now at the University but as of June his funding will be up so that means he needs another job. His interview went well but he is one of five candidates being considered so there it is again...that 20% chance against the odds that he will be the one. Even though I don't want this family to move...and especially not all the way to CA...I do hope for the best for him/them. And in this case I'm hoping for my friend to be the 20% minority.
   

The whole thing is weird...hoping for majority for one set of odds and minority for another. This is what my brain has been pondering all day and I just had to get it out in the open.