Are you sure?
This bookmark will be removed from all folders and any saved notes will be permanently removed.
Dreaming of something for nothing?
Freebies aren't all they're cracked up to be.
ACCORDING TO a recent study, one quarter of Americans are playing the lottery in the hope that their winnings will provide ample retirement funds, yet their actual chances of winning are ten-to-twenty million to one. Nearly impossible odds. What's worse is that in spite of such slim chances of getting something for nothing, people still believe—even hope and pray—that that's just what will happen. Some hope that they'll win the lottery, others wait for an inheritance, and still others wish and pray that sweepstakes, raffles, or free giveaways will bring the windfall of their dreams.
The problem with the something for-nothing dream is that it's a waiting played out on the turf of the future, while the present is spent waiting (and waiting and waiting) around for tomorrow's good. It's like waiting to pass "Go" in the game of Monopoly while at the same time never moving your token around the board.
About the author
(Candace du Mars is a contributing editor.)

January 24, 2000 issue
View Issue-
To Our Readers
Russ Gerber
-
YOUR LETTERS
with contributions from Daniel Finlay, James C. Purdon
-
items of interest
with contributions from Larry Dossey, lrene Monroe, Claudia Combs
-
Dreaming of something for nothing?
By Candace du Mars
-
HAVING WHAT WE NEED
Jan Johnston
-
Safe in God's love including on the ski slope
By Francesca Jordan Karpel
-
This wasn't a typical contest
The Editors
-
The moment of the millennium
By Masami Worgotter
-
What I would like to do
Deborah Allen-Baber
-
Do things or thoughts rule us?
By Clifford Kapps Eriksen
-
The gratitude attitude wipes out dismay
By Charles Edward Langton
-
Severe cold and breathing difficulties healed
Ruth Anne Kraner
-
Prayer heals back pain
David Alan Grier
-
Asthma healed
Kendra Santuccio
-
New life, new beginning
By Gay Bryant
-
Lower the ego level
Margaret Rogers