Why I will NEVER win the lottery

Artwork by Tarek Chemaly

So I got around to admitting it: I will never win the lottery. Never.

Sure, as the saying goes "to win the lottery you need to buy a ticket" something which I have done a grand total of 2 times in my life - at the suggestion of two different people who saw me being "lucky" on those two occasions. The world is full of people whose life was ruined by winning the lottery.

Some people are pragmatic about it, an Amercian friend - the US being a country where nouveau riche and excessive display of wealth is not frowned upon - told me he wouldn't buy a lottery ticket because if he won he didn't want his children to squabble over the money and people to start befriending him out of nowhere.

This reminds me of a recent exchange over social media with former Minister Nicolas Sehnaoui who was prompting people to come read my blog, sheepishly I admitted that - apart from this making sort of shy, I also did not recognize him when we met the first time in February 30 cafe in Hamra. His reply was something to the effect of that this is how real relationships grow, out of lack of expectations. And people approaching him out of "expectations" is something he knows only too well.

Actually, I once read that the common denominator between lottery winners is that they all feel they are lucky, so does this mean I don't feel I am? Assuming so would be would be taking a pessimisitic view of events. Rationally, you might be thinking "He will never win the lottery because he doesn't buy tickets, he doesn't buy tickets because he doesn't feel he is lucky, he doesn't feel lucky because he thinks the odds are too far against him, he feels the odds are against him because he doesn't believe in happiness".

How about this expalanation: he will never win the lottery because he already won it.

And whereas I do not subscribe to simplistic notions of happiness as sold in pop psychology, I will end with this gem in the words of House M.D.: "Miserable stays miserable, happy doesn't buy lottery in the first place".