Saturday 27 April 2013

News About Your Ticket

After years of resisting, I am now one of the blinded hopeful masses who play the lottery each week. Playing on-line, every time I get the e-mail titled 'News About Your Ticket' I get a little flutter in my tummy. I'm struggling to remember how I got here.

Nineteen years ago the nation went bonkers for the National Lottery. I was proud to resist being a slave to the weekly numbers making my thoughts known to anyone, usually quoting the fictitious Henry Davenport from Drop The Dead Donkey and calling it 'the moron tax'. I was smug that I wasn't one of those people who ended any discussion about craving luxury material items, 'ah well, when I win the lottery'. Relying on luck to get what you want in life, 19 years ago, was absurd. Plus the odds were wildly impossible, it seemed better to put money in premium bonds - which I did and earned the same interest as I would do in a savings account (when the interest rates were half decent).

Now I'm approaching 40, I seem to have softened my approach. I mean, what the harm in parting with £1 or £2 a week for a chance of winning a nest egg or ten? It's probably pretty common to feel this way during mid-life. I'm exhausted from the work/life balance and the idea of not working and having more freedom is extremely seductive. We have also witnessed first hand what lottery money is doing for good causes and sport, so another justification to why it's not a complete waste of cash.

Something doesn't sit right playing the lottery though. I buy my ticket on-line to keep it 'out of mind'. Except when that e-mail arrives with 'News About Your Ticket' then my meagre winnings of around £2.90 are used to buy more tickets. It's like a poorly performing financial investment.

I have a problem with the notion of craving large amounts of money. It's rife in our society, aspiring to the 'haves' and their endless stream of excess. Essentially I believe it cripples people into achieving their true potential and creating something amazing. When you've reached one level of wealth, it's inevitable you'll start lusting after the next level creating an impossible and exhausting journey. But it's easy to say that when I've never gone without the essentials in life.

I've been watching the second series of The Syndicate, which attempts to portray the influence of a large influx of cash on people's lives. Unlike, Disney telling us that a 'happy ending' is marrying a prince and living in a castle, the series unfolds into moralistic yarn on how money destroys families, friendships and basically turns people into nastiness. I'm sure that many of us have first hand life experience of this being true. I have sadly seen money change people's trust in each other.

In the last episode of the series, they featured a house which was the venue of a good friend's wedding. My eyes and heart filled with emotion, memories streaming back of a happy but emotional day. Weddings cost money but the moments they provide beat out a million lottery wins. And that is something I truly believe. Long may I remember!
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