“If I win that big Powerball lottery, I’ll just keep farming until it’s gone.”
– Dick Heston, my dad, back when no one ever thought they’d see a $1.7 billion dollar lottery
So, do we play or not?
Who wouldn’t toss $2 in to grab a “chance” for $1.7 billion?
The question, though, isn’t “who wouldn’t?” it’s “who shouldn’t?” and the answer is the vast majority of all of us. Actually, no. The answer is, it’s all of us.
If they’re paying out $1.7 billion, and 40% of gross proceeds go to charity, we’re looking at somewhere close to $3 billion being spent (primarily by people who really can’t afford it) on a pipe dream. Key verb there, is spent. Yesterday, a friend told me he’d invested $50 in Powerball. Invested? Really? But I digress…
Dad’s “take” that kicks off today’s post, tongue-in-cheek as it was intended, foreshadows a dark truth. The majority of lottery winners are, within a couple years of winning, basically broke. Again. We can dream about wild wealth and financial freedom, but we have trouble imagining the darker side of whatever apparently good thing has just happened in the moment.
I am reminded of a friend and trusted mentor who asked, “Win the lottery! Good news or bad news?” Everyone around him exclaimed, “GOOD NEWS!” He continued, “Your closest friends and family disown you, due to the way you distribute or don’t distribute the winnings among them. They never speak to you again. Good news or bad news?” Everyone around him said, “BAD NEWS!” He continued, “With all of that unproductive, guilt-ridden time freed up, you create and engage in new, rewarding relationships that excite and energize you and the other people and make you feel fantastic! Good news or bad news?” And, everyone around him said, basically, “Um, at this point, we have no clue…we thought it was good to win the lottery and bad to lose all those friends….” and they looked at each other with that Scooby Doo “RUHT-RO!” look in their eye.
His point was this, an oft-quoted Daily Difference staple: “Most things in life are neither good nor bad, right nor wrong. Most things just are.” He also asked — and I’ve incorporated in to well over two dozen DD posts over the years; “Since there is nothing we can do about anything that came before right now, what will we do, right now?”
Highs are temporary. Lows are temporary. Right now is all we can really address. So, whether we pick up a few Powerball tickets or not, whether we win a billion tonight in the lottery, or lose a few thousand today in the market, it will likely not be good or bad, right or wrong. It will just be. And in just being in this moment, we can make a difference for someone.
Leave a Reply