may the {dream} odds be ever in your favor . . .

Yes, I’m one of the many {many, many} movie-goers who contributed to The Hunger Games’ $155 million box office blow-out.

 

Watching the Reaping — the lottery where two young tributes are chosen to fight to the death in a cruelly masterminded arena — was no less intense than reading about it.  And throwing motherhood into my arena of experience gave me an amped up version of the dread-induced nausea I felt in junior high reading Shirley Jackson’s short story, “The Lottery.” What if one of my kids was chosen? 

 

Before heading into Mockingjay-mode with my teenage daugheter,  my 6 1/2  year-old son wondered aloud about another lottery that’s rivaling The Hunger Games frenzy- – the MegaMillions jackpot.

 

“Are people wasting their money when they buy a lottery ticket?” Justus asked, causing a murmur of chuckles to ripple down the grocery story  check-out line.

 

“Not when the jackpot’s $363 million,” one women chimed up. “Gotta be in it to win it.”

 

After Tuesday’s no-winner drawing, that jackpot skyrocketed to $540 million dollars and will keep climbing until the numbers that change someone’s life forever are drawn. {Somehow even the bold statement “change someone’s life forever” seems like an understatement here.}

 

I don’t usually buy lottery tickets, but I did on Tuesday, and plan to be in it to win it today, too.

 

And, like millions of other people, I’m thinking about how having that much money would change my life . . . and no, I’m not going anywhere near the “money like that is a curse” mindset.  I’m using MegaMillions as  a “what if” filter. What if I won? What if I had the financial freedom to do absolutely anything or nothing at all?

 

NY Lottery ran this clever ad campaign featuring people dressed and ready to be winners so if their numbers were drawn,  they could leap into their dream lives without missing a beat.

 

Not only have I been imagining about where I’d leap and how I’d like to land, I’m also thinking about which of those places and ways of being and doing are within my reach right now, even without a winning ticket.

 

Let MegaMillions madness be a reason to exercise your dream muscles. Cast your imagination to its outer limits, and then reel some of those sparks back into your here and now.

 

What are you ready to take a chance on?