Rangerland Forum Information

[Paul Smachetti]

I dont play the lottery. Im not a douchebag enough to laugh at others, but I am amused when my family and friends play it. I dont know how the US version works, but with the English one you have more chance of having 2 heart attacks one after the other than winning the jackpot.

........or being mauled by a polar bear and a regular bear in the same day.

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[pitchburn]

...Or of buying a flyers and devils jersey on the same day.

[rightbug]

If your "friends" and family change and you pick a wife who only loves you for your money, then you are surrounding yourself with the wrong people.

Sudden changes in fortune - either for the better or for the worse - makes us come unmoored. If we become suddenly wealthy, we can now have anything that we want. This sounds good, but our desires become insatiable, and once we hit the ceiling it's hard to take because we've become accustomed to getting exactly what we want when and how we want it. For the suddenly poor, desires must now be suppressed even more than before. Either way, the individual is removed from the economic environment to which they have been accustomed for their entire lives. It's kind of like a deep-sea diver resurfacing too quickly and getting the bends.

While we could have a whole separate conversation about the factors that contribute to happiness or unhappiness, I think it is fair to say that people who are happy have generally made healthy choices about the people they've surrounded themselves with and are well equipped (mentally and otherwise) to handle potential adversity (such as winning the lottery and the attendant dramatic changes that inevitably follow). I think this speaks to beukes' theory. People who are happy are better positioned to experience positive change as a result of winning the lottery and will maintain their level of happiness. People who are unhappy are not well positioned to experience positive change and will likely continue to be unhappy.

Projecting from my own life... I have come to a place of great happiness in my life and a large part of that is that my partner and I take life's little hurdles in stride feeling that there is nothing we cannot get through together equipped with positive attitudes. We have also surrounded ourselves with great people who are in our lives for all of thr right reasons so we have an excellent support system and we don't have people in our lives who cause problems or bring unnecessary drama or conflict to the table.