Lethal Lottery
“When I win the lottery I will buy…” we hear that all the time from our friends and family. It is mostly just an off the cuff remark, but I often wonder about our desperation especially when it comes to greed.
This week’s Euro Millions lottery draw is said to be worth in and around €130 million. Automatically someone doing this thinks “ Hey, I’d better do that this week” because we get it into our heads that if the stakes are higher we have more of a chance of winning.
I can’t believe something like that wouldn’t change a person. Yes we would all like to be financially secure but at the same time there’s secure and there’s airtight never being able to leave your house for reasons of paranoia because you will eventually believe that they are all out to get you.
There is also the need for the greed, because I think it changes you so much that once you start on the road it’s never enough. There are many scrooge like examples of people who like to hold on to the money they receive and thus endure complaints from those who know them saying to everyone who’ll listen that they have “changed” mainly because the would not give them what they want.
If you are to believe all the stories then it has certainly changed the life of Dolores McNamara who won €115.6 million in the Euro Millions draw in July 2005. The media has constantly tried to make the reclusive Ms McNamara a celebrity, detailing with many “Exclusives” as to the nature of her family’s safety in the Limerick area as well as any purchases she decides to make.
It is not good to be too free. It is not good to have everything one wants.
Blaise Pascal
Would we really want our lives scrutinised like that for just the 30 pieces of silver? Greed and fame walk similar paths and when we have either one we are not sure if it was what we really wanted in the first place.
Three clergymen split on a lottery ticket and they won the grand prize of a million dollars. The first one, a Baptist minister says “this is a blessing, but how much do we keep for ourselves and how much should we give to God”?
After a few minutes he said “I know we’ll draw a circle and throw the money up in the air, whatever lands out of the circle we’ll keep and whatever lands in the circle we’ll give to God.”
The Priest pipes up and says, “You know it’s a little windy, I think we should throw the money up in the air and whatever lands inside the circle we keep and whatever lands outside of the circle we give to God.”
They then turn to the rabbi and ask his opinion, and the rabbi says. “I think we should throw the money up in the air and whatever God wants he can keep and we’ll keep the rest for ourselves”
Tuesday, September 25th, 2007 and is filed under Thoughts & Questions, Views on News.
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Ann Says:
Feed man until he is fed-up; surround him with every material condition to satisfy every passion; give him license to do whatever he pleases; castle him; cajole him; satiate him; coddle him; amuse him - and invariably, after a short time, he will seek what he has not, grasp for something which is beyond his reach, and weep for the unworldly, even in the heart of the world, as he stretches out his hands for that ‘ unpossessed that makes all possession vain.’ Fulton Sheen, Lift up Your Heart.
September 25th, 2007 at 5:37 pm