A life’s legacy

I recently had the opportunity to consider what I might do if I won the lottery; I was awake, staring at a computer screen and trying to work. What would I do if I had been able to match all the numbers and win $13,000,000.00? Sure there are all the usual promises, making sure my son has funding for his education (to show I am family minded), buying a new but modest car (to show I can enjoy my riches without flaunting it), and giving to charity (to show I am generous of spirit).

So now that I have shown the world what I would like it to think of me, how would I really like to spend the money? I don’t want to blow all of it of course because I do genuinely want to take care of myself, but I would like to use some of it to indulge some of my desires.

This is about thinking inside the box, deep inside the box where the dark resides. This is about indulging that part of you placated by eating buckets of ice cream, giving the finger to old men in Buicks, and wishing the neighbour’s cat would cross the road in front of your car just as you take your eyes off the road.

This is about revenge. Not the hiring a hit man kind of revenge. Too many problems to deal with, like prosecution. This needs to come from where we live, to answer what has scarred us for life. This involves money. Do you really want to give your money away to people who don’t deserve it? People you don’t like? Relatives?

Does your brother really need a hand out of a couple million of your dollars? If by his thirties he can’t figure out how birth control works then maybe he should be forced to understand how maintenance enforcement can improve his life.

Does your sister-in-law think that drinking cheap red wine and playing on-line poker all day really constitutes life experience? Let her fund her lifestyle from her winnings.

And what about that girl you loved in high school? You know the one; you almost asked her out but instead she went to the dance with that long haired creep with the cool car. What would you like to do to her life?

If you dig deeply into your life, into your past, you can come up with so many people who have earned your enmity. Dangle the money in front of friends and snatch it from their grasp. Flaunt your wealth in front of family members who have nothing. Why should they enjoy the fruits of your labours? Let them earn their own way in life. Pull themselves up by their own boot straps. That will teach them to wear flip-flops.

If we have learned anything from reality television, it is that money means nothing without fame or power. In the end isn’t power just the opportunity to control someone else’s life? Right?