Money may not buy happiness, but it can buy help

On April 12th, 13 Missouri state employees won a $224.2 million Powerball jackpot. According to the Missouri Lottery website the jackpot was the largest ever won in the 20-year history of the Missouri Lottery and the seventh largest Powerball jackpot awarded in the nation. The age range of the winners were 36-68. Eleven of the winners contributed $5 each to the winning ticket (payoff of $8.5 million each before taxes) and the other two pitched in $2.50 ($4.2 million before taxes). When reporters asked one of the winners what she planned to do with the money her first answer was "pay-off some bills." Surprisingly, "pay-off bills" is the first thing most winners think of, not buy a new car, or buy a new house, or take a trip abroad (all of that probably comes later), but the fact that in the beginning the most important thing to winners is to get out of debt.

Most of the people I know that play the Lottery play it for fun and for hope. They buy a $5 ticket a week. Their hope is not that they can live a life of luxury, but that they can pay medical bills, provide (not buy, it's not about buying . . . it's about providing) some things for their family that they can't now afford.

If I won the lottery I don't think it would make me a bit happier than I am right now in my life, because we all know, money does not buy happiness. It would give me great pleasure to be able to; pay a private nurse to help my mother care for my dad, afford the best and newest medications and health care for my husband, replace the 25year old roof on our house; help all my kids a little, and see that all my grandkids get a few extras. Life will go on without any of these things happening and we will probably never be the worst for it. But . . .

Attribute this to my "grey area" or liberalism . . . I don't believe buying a $5 lottery ticket a week is a sin. I think if you bought $500 worth of lottery tickets and your family didn't have food on the table . . . it would be a sin. Unfortunately, I am not proud to say I sin every time I order a steak and eat until I make myself sick.

Many of us spend $5 a week on Big Macs, ballgame tickets, or other recreation (bottled water and diet Dr. Pepper are my downfalls), what is the difference in spending $5 on a lottery ticket. For some it's fun, it brings them hope and maybe . . . just maybe . . . it will provide them with a little extra help.

To get back to the Missouri Lottery news. According to the website, from February 19-April 12, out of the $22 million in Powerball tickets that were sold, approximately $8.6 million of those sales will go to Missouri's public education programs. If we could just get some of that money for state health care programs . . . we would be on a roll!