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The office is playing the lottery again.
There's something about the possibility of huge sums of money like that that makes one drift into odd but mostly pleasant daydreams. I'm very fond of building castles in Spain. This should come as a surprise to no one. I inherited the habit from my mother: always think of the future, but never in "realistic" terms. Realism is highly overrated. Realism says I can't play the drums. Realism says I can't write a novel in three days if I want to. Realism says "You can't be a band if you have no instruments."
I figure there can't be too many people in our society who haven't at one point or another worked out in their heads what they would do if they won the lottery. Regardless of whether they play the lottery, for that matter. I know I have. Whenever there's a large jackpot, I find myself wondering about it. Sometimes I even buy a ticket. Mostly I don't, because I know that the odds of my winning are about the same as being struck by lightning in a submarine.
One day, though, I'd like to jump up and down and shout: "My submarine was hit by lightning!"
The funny thing is, I don't think that winning the smallest jackpot available would allow me to never work again. I worked it out. Say I won $1,000,000. That's a large amount of money, right? I mean, the mind boggles at that kind of number: you can't really conceive of it in physical terms. Still, it means that I would be able to live on an average income of $30,000 a year for about 33 years. It's more money than I currently make, and I wouldn't be working for it, which is always a good thing. It also means that I wouldn't have any money left at the age of 60 unless I found some really funky way of investing my money which made it do all sorts of interesting things. Given that my life expectancy is about 30 years more than that (and that's a conservative estimate), that's not great. I don't want to start working at 60, after all.
Like I said, castles in Spain. I'm probably never going to win the lottery. The odds are very much against me. I'm very likely going to have to scramble after money for the rest of my life, given my skills and the current job market, which doesn't look like it's going to improve any time soon. I just find it fun to worry about all the "problems" I'd have if I actually won. It would just kind of be insulting to win a large jackpot only to realise that you still have to go back to work. I'd like work to be a choice and not a necessity, something that brings me a sense of fulfilment and even pleasure. I want to be able to say "I can't believe I get paid to do this!" How many people get to say that on a regular basis?
If I win the lottery, I want the result to be that I never have to worry about working again.
There's something about the possibility of huge sums of money like that that makes one drift into odd but mostly pleasant daydreams. I'm very fond of building castles in Spain. This should come as a surprise to no one. I inherited the habit from my mother: always think of the future, but never in "realistic" terms. Realism is highly overrated. Realism says I can't play the drums. Realism says I can't write a novel in three days if I want to. Realism says "You can't be a band if you have no instruments."
I figure there can't be too many people in our society who haven't at one point or another worked out in their heads what they would do if they won the lottery. Regardless of whether they play the lottery, for that matter. I know I have. Whenever there's a large jackpot, I find myself wondering about it. Sometimes I even buy a ticket. Mostly I don't, because I know that the odds of my winning are about the same as being struck by lightning in a submarine.
One day, though, I'd like to jump up and down and shout: "My submarine was hit by lightning!"
The funny thing is, I don't think that winning the smallest jackpot available would allow me to never work again. I worked it out. Say I won $1,000,000. That's a large amount of money, right? I mean, the mind boggles at that kind of number: you can't really conceive of it in physical terms. Still, it means that I would be able to live on an average income of $30,000 a year for about 33 years. It's more money than I currently make, and I wouldn't be working for it, which is always a good thing. It also means that I wouldn't have any money left at the age of 60 unless I found some really funky way of investing my money which made it do all sorts of interesting things. Given that my life expectancy is about 30 years more than that (and that's a conservative estimate), that's not great. I don't want to start working at 60, after all.
Like I said, castles in Spain. I'm probably never going to win the lottery. The odds are very much against me. I'm very likely going to have to scramble after money for the rest of my life, given my skills and the current job market, which doesn't look like it's going to improve any time soon. I just find it fun to worry about all the "problems" I'd have if I actually won. It would just kind of be insulting to win a large jackpot only to realise that you still have to go back to work. I'd like work to be a choice and not a necessity, something that brings me a sense of fulfilment and even pleasure. I want to be able to say "I can't believe I get paid to do this!" How many people get to say that on a regular basis?
If I win the lottery, I want the result to be that I never have to worry about working again.
