The Lottery Game

I play the lottery. For some reason, I've been about half convinced that I was going to win some day. People always say that the odds against winning are astronomical, and they are right, but someone does win every so often, and it's obvious that you will certainly never win if you never buy a ticket. So, for a relatively small amount, I can pretend that it's going to happen to me each week.

I figured out a long time ago that what you get when you play is the opportunity to imagine what you would do with the money. So you're paying for a fantasy.

You have to get past the silly complaints that you will hear about how all your relatives will have their hand out and how you will be hounded by charities. Minor problems. Either throw sis a bone (hell, it can be just a couple of percent of the winnings and they still could be out of debt) and change to an unlisted number, or just give it all away if you believe it's really that much of a problem. The real problem that many lottery winners have is blowing all the money and being left penniless. So lets assume that the money doesn't go to your head and make that happen.

What I have decided was not that I would buy a huge fancy house, or two, or an expensive car or whatever, but that I would like to travel. By travel, I don't mean constantly hopping airplanes everywhere, I mean, have a house, pay someone to maintain it, but go live in different places, maybe 4 or 6 months at a time. Rent someplace nice and move enough stuff there to be comfortable, then explore. The list of where to go can become quite extensive, if you play this fantasy game. I've got big cities, middle sized cities and remote coutryside locations in mind. Surprisingly, most of my ideas are in the continental U.S.A. Really, international travel is a great idea, but not as a constant thing. I don't think I could get through the U.S. hit list in 20 years of 6 months at a time per place. I think some places would merit repeat trips. Here's some of my ideas: Upstate Maine in summer into the fall, Michigan's upper peninsula, Seattle, San Diego, Key West, Chicago, New York City, Telluride, Boseman, Flagstaff, Taos, Corpus Christie, Washington D.C., Denver during ski season, Charlotte, Jamestown, the outer banks, Miami, and Destin Florida, just for starters. Two of my special adders are: charter a boat in the Mediterranean and go around the southern coast of Europe from Greece to Spain in about 3 months in the summer, and the Ecuadorean Andes (I've already been, but it was in the Army, and painfully missing any freedom of movement and exploration). I suppose Alaska and Hawaii should go on the list, but I can't say they are high on my priorities.

I've fleshed out this fantasy to include details like: for NYC, get an apartment near Grenich Village and hit the streets every day sightseeing; and the type of cabin to get in Telluride and the places I would go in the backcountry in the mountains.

The trick to these fantasies is to realize that they aren't all fantasies. If you pick and choose a few of them, they are easily within the realm of possibility. I'm not saying quit your job and go live there for a month, I'm saying pick cool places and JUST GO. Life's too short to imagine that there are lots of places to go and no way to go there.