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The fairy tale ending.
What a beautiful concept.
Thanks to Disney movies and various childhood storybooks, we have all been conditioned to think that if you are honest, hardworking, and kind you are destined to be rewarded.
Sure the hero or heroine has to undergo some sort of trial and tribulation or have a tragedy befall him or her early on in the story.
But in the end the audience is treated to a heartwarming triumph that the protagonist enjoys that is typical of every feel good story.
This format of storytelling follows the Dramatic Structure that was analyzed by many Greek scholars dating back to Aristotle.
So forgive me that, after being brainwashed from said media, I fully expected that Karma and the Universe owed me big time because of my awful divorce and subsequent frivolous lawsuit my ex put me through.
Here I was, dealing with a very vindictive ex who made Disney’s most villainous character look like a girl scout, constantly hurdling over every obstacle life threw at me, all the while hemorrhaging money.
After losing an estimated 7 figure amount due to lost assets in divorce as well as legal defense costs, I thought surely karma will now smile on me after I was completely abused by the legal system and my ex.
I truly believed that because I lost so much of my hard earned money during this process, my reward would come in the form of untold riches that did not require an ounce of sweat equity/human capital on my part.
After all, did I not already take the leap of faith required in these fairy-tales when I blindly put my trust in an arranged marriage to appease others?
Instead of landing on solid ground from this leap, I plummeted.
Therefore with the divorce and lawsuit chapter closed in my book of life, surely the next chapter would be my denouement.
So I waited. And waited. And waited.
When my net worth did not magically recover to its pre-divorce levels I had to reassess the situation.
I then had the bright idea that maybe I needed to nudge karma and the universe in the right way and what better way to gain unearned money than through the lottery.
It saddens me to say this but I truly believed I was destined to hit a major winning to make up for the undeserved loss I experienced.
In fact I thought that not only should I receive enough lottery money to wipe out my losses, I should receive a ton more for the pain and suffering the universe put me through.
Watching TV shows like “How Lottery Changed My Life” only added fuel to the fire.
It was because of this fantastical thinking that I actually had a, fortunately, brief addiction with the lottery.
Every Friday on my way home I would stop at a convenience store and pick up about $50-100 worth of lottery offerings, in the form of Powerball lottery tickets and instant scratch off cards (typically the $20 version since it was only those cards where the grand prize was of a significant amount that could make me whole again).
Weeks bled into months and I was truly becoming a lottery junkie.
Sure I would win occasionally (I believe the largest winning was $125 off a $20 ticket), but the net of this endeavor caused me to lose over $1k.
Not the end of the world with my salary but I knew I was on a fool’s mission and needed to stop right away before I kept throwing more money into a bottomless pit.
At that point I came to the conclusion that karma and the universe do not owe me *&!@! and decided to not leave it up to fate but rather create my own financial destiny.
The rest, as they say, is history.
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-Xrayvsn
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I know this is old but I have to say somrthing. Divorce I bet is awful and in no way am I diminishing your feelings but don’t you think that to even think that karma owes you because of a divorce is crazy? I’m actually in the same mindset as you for the lottery. And if I told you the things that have happened to me you would shit your pants. I always think about the guy that is worse of than me.Then I think the nerve I have to think I’m owed anything or to even feel sorry for… Read more »