Powerball

 

January 18, 2016

Greetings from your lucky day,

You might have guessed since you’re reading this that I did not win the Mega-Maxi-Ultra-Super-Duper-Powerball lottery.  I guess it’s also possible that you are not reading this because you were one of the winners, but that’s another tangent.

The reason I didn’t buy a ticket is I was distracted by the list of things that are more likely to happen to me than winning the Powerball.  These lists appear every time there is a big payout, and to me it is always more interesting than winning itself, your chances of which were 1 in 292 million. 

According to Time magazine, (Motto: We Didn’t Buy a Powerball Ticket) you are more likely to die from constipation, an asteroid strike, hornet sting, lightning strike, or be murdered in the Grand Canyon than win the Powerball.  If you combine all of those events I don’t know if you beat the odds for winning the lottery, but really after a day like that who cares?

I heard intelligent, rational, sensible people sketch out their justification for buying lottery tickets.  They always say they know the probabilities, but... “if someone is going to win, why not me?  Why not today?  You can’t win if you don’t play.”  I get that.  If you have a chance to be wealthy, why wouldn’t you take it?

I heard people talk about their choices.  The numbers they chose; kids’ birthdays, combinations of dates, addresses, ages, and Kim Kardashian’s current weight.  They explained why they decided to buy $44 worth and didn’t spend $4400, because that would be foolish.  Where they would go buy the ticket, whether that store had a winning record, and what the odds were of that bolt of lightning hitting again.  What time of day was the best, whether to wear a lucky shirt or save that for the SuperBowl.  Only so much mojo in cotton you know.

I am not a gambler, other than the daily risks I take with asteroids and lightning, but the cost of the ticket was not ever the issue.  I just couldn’t suspend my disbelief long enough to get the momentum needed to drive to the local party store and plop down $2 for a list of random digits.

Just so you know, this is not like being PBS snob; you know ‘I don’t watch TV, but when I do it’s only PBS.’  I am not above buying a lottery ticket; as a matter of fact I have a $5 winner in my sock drawer right now.  I’m waiting until I get closer to retirement to cash it in.

One common theme in every lottery discussion; what will you do if you win?  100% of the people I talked to (the honest ones anyway) said they would quit their job. There was some token reference to giving to the needy and paying off some debt, but then the choices diverge depending on the level of inhibition.  It’s interesting to hear what people dream of if anything were possible.

To one degree or another we all think that luck has something to do with the quality of our lives.  Some describe it differently but in the vast chain reaction of our world there are random chance events that affect us, sometimes positively sometimes adversely. 

I think that is where this lottery fever stems from.  Yes, we know that what the math is, what the odds are.  But we have this hope, irrational and unsullied by fact, that we might tip luck in our favor if we risk a few numbers, a few dollars.  And while you wait to see the numbered balls bubble up, the mental lift you get from the possibility, however remote, that your life could change dramatically for the better in an instant, is worth it.

What occurs to me this morning is why don’t we gamble like that with everything we are passionate about?  Why not ignore the odds and invest ourselves in what might pay off for in the life we dream of?  You know what I am talking about.  It is that relationship you hesitate over.  The book you have not written.  The career you didn’t choose first.  The school you really wanted to go to.  Maybe it’s time.  After all, someone’s going to win, why not you?

I’ve given this some serious thought, and I am certain if I do ever win the Powerball I’ll still write Monday Moanin’.  Might be from the edge of my tropical island, but I’ll still be here every week.  Just letting you know.

Hope this finds you winning,

David

Copyright © 2016 David Smith