If You Won the Lottery . . .

We’ve heard about the sad fortune of lottery winners--the ones who take their millions, buy the new house and car they’ve always wanted, give some money to beseeching relatives and are gulled out of the rest by investment pros. They quit their jobs, elated at the chance to live as they’ve always dreamed, and in a short time they have less money than they did before. They wind up wondering how they went so wrong.

The problem is that they looked at their lottery winnings the wrong way. They thought it was their money--a private windfall to be used for personal gain. What if they’d seen the winnings as a gift-in-trust, bestowed on them at random by the population at large? If lottery winners spend the money on themselves, they may or may not wind up poor, but they’re pretty sure to wind up unhappy.

The gift-in-trust is a way for lottery winners to do what they’ve always wanted, not for themselves but for their community. Buy the land for a city park of their own design. Set up a program to spay orphaned cats and dogs and then place them. Fund a scholarship for underprivileged kids. Turn a derelict building into a homeless shelter. Whatever cause they’re passionate about, use the money for it.

The challenge for winners is to dig deep and see if they have the imagination to dream an altruistic dream. I believe most people have never given it any thought. A once-in-a-lifetime event like a lottery win serves as a call to consciousness, a time to think beyond one’s own needs and ponder a greater good and how it might be achieved.

Aren’t we all philanthropists at heart? Don’t we all have a secret dream, a project that could benefit others? Most of us think we have to look after our own needs first. Lottery winners don’t have to. They can uncover that dream and make it real. They’ll probably still have to work, and they may not be able to buy a car with all the glitter, but their winnings could have a greater and longer-lasting value. The winners might even leave a legacy.

And the rest of us, the ones who haven’t win the lottery? We can live the same way by acting as if we’ve won. How big a house do we really need? How modern a car? Are the good things in life--the cruise, the 50-yard line tickets, the exquisite wine--all that wonderful? How many $100 restaurant meals do we need to experience?

What if you used for yourself only what you really needed and put the rest to use for some public good, the project that you, not some government agency, thought would benefit the commonweal?

I play the lottery myself, but these days I do it without guilt because I’m playing not for me but for my secret dream.