The Powerball is up to $800 million, maybe even more. I normally don't buy lottery tickets, but I decided to buy a few when I read an article in the newspaper about the giant jackpot. Jack and Pedro went out and bought tickets last night after dinner. The odds of winning are 292.2 million to one. We bought several numbers, decreasing our odds to fifty million to one.
As anyone who buy buys a lottery ticket, I am imagining what I will do with the money. I will make sure my father has enough money to support my mother as she continues her decline with Alzheimer's. I'll make sure Jack's parents are secure in their retirement, and I'll pay for the kids to go to college.
"Thanks, Mom," Pedro said at dinner last night when I listed sending him and his sister to college as my third priority. He might have been waiting to see when his name would come up.
While it would be nice to have enough money to never have to worry again (not that I am worried now), money doesn't give someone purpose. Money could be fine, but we all still need to find something meaningful to do with our lives.
That being said, I am considering buying lottery tickets more often, but for a different purpose. I read in the Seattle Times that the State of Washington is using sales of lottery tickets to expand funding for education, among other things. Here the state is using the lottery as a revenue source, and I don't contribute. Lottery tickets is a tax on low income people, people who worry about money and spend a little bit as a wager on the chance that they might not have to worry again. Is it fair in a state that has a regressive tax system that they should carry this burden? Perhaps I should participate and contribute some funds.
Just a thought.
All of this talk about the lottery reminds of when I was at my grandparents' home when I was in elementary school and the lottery selection came on. The little numbered ping-pong type balls were bouncing around a clear container. The woman opened a little door, and some of the balls floated into the tube. Those numbers were the winners. My grandfather and I joked that we were going to rig the system by putting fishing weights inside all of the balls except the ones we picked, so our numbers would float to the top and we would win. It was our grand plan.
This blog is about the little and big thoughts that pop into my head. I once read that when Flannery O'Connor walked into a bookstore, she would want to edit her published works with a red pen. In the digital world, we have the luxury of tweaking things up after we've hit the publish button. I can be a perfectionist/procrastinator, where waiting for the ideal means little gets done. Here I will share what is not--and likely will never be--perfect.
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