Tales of Inspiration

About a week ago, I was trying to return something at a local convenience store (apparently, when a comb says 'unbreakable" in huge letters across its surface, that doesn't necessarily constitute a binding guarantee. we'll leave it for the courts to decide) and in front of me in the line there was an older gentleman, purchasing instant lottery tickets. These tickets were the variety in which you needed to scratch off three matching sums of money, and that's the amount you'd win. I watched this man do his scratching, and I noticed that after he revealed two matching sums, he would throw the ticket into the garbage with the third number unrevealed. How odd, I thought, so I stopped him.

"Oh Pap Pap," I said (I call all older gentlemen "Pap Pap", and older women "Mee Maw". They all seem to love it, it's endearing. Maybe it's because my own grandfather wouldn't allow me to call him Pap Pap, even though I begged him. He insisted that I call him Dr. Phillips, although he was an electrician, and his last name was Henry. Now that I'm older, I realize that he may not have actually been my grandfather.)

"Pap Pap, why is it that when there's a chance you might win, you throw the ticket away without finding out whether or not you've won a lot of money? That's seems very silly to me. Right silly indeed." I said the last part with a comical Cockney accent, just to keep his interest.

"Well my boy, when you get to be my age, you'll have seen a lot of disappointments. I use these tickets to give myself hope. When two numbers match, I don't uncover the last one, because I get to walk around all day thinking that I could be a winner. If I see all the numbers, I might find out that I lost. I'd rather have the possibility of winning than the reality of losing," said the old man.

"If you're not going to buy something, you have to leave," said the clerk.

"Thank you, my dear sweet old old man," I said.

I thought about what that man said, and it made a lot of sense. He'd really figured out the secret to happiness. He lives a life of infinite possibilities. He's always a winner, because he won't allow himself to lose. I decided right then and there I was going to live my life that way. As soon as I was done getting those tickets out of the trash. It turns out that guy wasn't going to win shit. What an asshole.