Powerball and John and Laura Arnold

Last night, headed to a belated birthday party, and running a bit late, my husband and I made sure to make one stop. POWERBALL. Odds one in a gazillion, a word that elicits childhood laughter at such a silly sounding word and as an adult, seems to be linked to dollar signs.

We bought our chance, picking up three scratch offs. I feel embarassed when I buy scratch offs, the frenetic scraping of the silver smear of hidden treasures seems to relay a message easily obvious to the world.

I want a break, period.

Apparently, I am not alone.

A woman cashier, who was quoted in a yahoo article on last night's powerball as follows:

Seema Sharma doesn't seem to think so. The newsstand employee in Manhattan's Penn Station purchased $80 worth of tickets for herself. She also was selling tickets all morning at a steady pace, instructing buyers where to stand if they wanted machine-picked tickets or to choose their own numbers.

"I work very hard — too hard — and I want to get the money so I can finally relax," she said. "You never know."

Associated Press Radio Correspondent Julie Walker and AP writers Jeffrey Collins in Columbia, S.C., Betsy Blaney in Lubbock, Texas, Russ Bynum in Savannah, Ga., John Rogers in Los Angeles and Verena Dobnick in New York contributed to this report

And that is where we have come to in our society. We have become a world where relax isn't  possible with a "working life". For some of us, our jobs don't wipe out every last breath of our physical energy level, but the toll it takes on our minds seems to deplete our resources for more creative pursuits and better quality of home life. For others, the physical toll renders them old before their time and bitter at the diminishing pay off financially for their literal blood and sweat.

Unfortunately tears happen alot in both worlds.

And then there are those who want to work, but struggle in finding work for the long list of reasons that seem to populate various stories. Some places have no jobs period, other places have so many applicants that it is easy to be replaced. In other states, folks are working and excelling, yet slowly discovering the cycle has become tiring.

Are there those for whom it all seems to work out in plentiful? Yes. Some are just lucky and some, well they work seriously hard and are very smart. Like the Houston couple, John and Laura Arnold, they are an interesting facet of extreme money and extreme interest in truly evaluating the larger efforts needed to possibly effect change in the direction and development of our world.

He made his money through obviously being very perceptive in patterns and divergant comparison of information.

And he did his homework.

Together this equalled unparalleled success.

And now they have alot of money and total freedom to decide where they want to invest it.

I respect their approach, alot of people though are angry about it, some say they need the money for groups they serve, others just want it. Just like anything, kindness and purpose have two sides; the one which is true in purpose and process and those that use kindess as a cover.

So it seems the Arnolds are taking great care to evaluate and  find and offer help to those groups which seem true in intent and well thought and aware in their meaning and method of reaching goal. As a side note, after reading another yahoo article about artificial intelligence i.e. robots taking over our jobs, I thought about Mr. Arnold. A robot could be built to do exactly what he did. Research, compile and cross reference the widest range of contributing factors to given subject outcomes in order to predict accurately effect and result. A good use of intelligence in trouble shooting and yet, then it becomes less a human skill and more a skill field lost to technology. And possibly more folks out of work.

But that was kind of squirrel moment on my part...back to subject.

I wonder if the world could be as brave in changing what they do?

We seem caught, as if given a pop test and told it makes up our entire grade. Confused and angry and lost. Our American dream we had embraced has been ripped to shreds for some. Unfortunately, that "sum" is larger than the whole in volume. Have you noticed the level of escapism in our tv viewing? And we keep creating more and more way to escape at any time in any place, from a  seated position. I had a male tween once tell me "my generation figured out what your generation never could...how to travel the world and do anything without leaving the couch".

I really felt sad for him. So many things cannot be truly experienced at all in a virtual reality world. I think we have the ability to make some real changes. The Arnolds prefer gualitative and quantitaive studies and groups. Unfortunately, I am neither.  More a lay person of social reform and more fulfilling and creative development of a city, state, country, and world. Over the next few weeks, I'll tackle areas and share thougths and ideas about ways to work towards a healthier world. But briefly;

Education: Man, I wish that "No Child Left Behind" would have been less about testing regulations and percentage of mastery increases as a means of evaluating education and more about recognizing that the reality is, not every child at all is going to meet what we TRADITIONALLY perceive as an education. I wish the kids I have worked with, who have various spectrum disorders or emotional and behavioral needs or intense learning disabilities could have schools that better met their educational needs; which would be DIFFERENT from the TRADITIONAL school design...our current approach to public school is not meeting their developmental, physiological, and emotional needs. nor can they really, not the way they are currently set up.. I wish kids who were obviously, consistently, never varying in this outcome, uninterested in TRADITIONAL school could be shifted into a skill training program or military field so they could learn a usable functional skill which opens up a whole different educational field for them. I wish our creative artist types could have an environment that continues to build this out of the box approach to learning. Our musicians, bands, and orchestra minded students, hallways filled with the world mix of sounds wrapped overlaied with good ole reading, writing, and arithmatic. Our science and math students linked to our local research facilities for internships in middle and highschool. That our communities could coordinate local businesses for ongoing internships from the time a teen was in tenth grade.

And why can't 14 year olds work? Child Labor laws were very needed when we worked children till they died, stealing them from families and taking them to cities; slave labor. But folks, have you talked with the latest 13 or fourteen year old. Their world is about items; stuff with name brands, latest techie release, very expensive objects. And as much as we wish we could have them valuing nature, the sound of silence (Simon and Garfunkle-check them out), and the appreciation of having not, these kids are hungry for money and to work. My generations $43.00 Guess jeans are this generations entire wardobe and life times ten. Most common question I am asked by 12 and up..."do you know anyone that hires my age?".

And they are bitter sometimes folks....BITTER at what they do not have. And the less money their adult who is caring for them has...the deeper that anger seems to go. And then they become adults, who grew up watching tv shows where people lived out their dreams due to an audition, reality show miasma of instant fame, they become adults either chasing it or ruefully wondering why they didn't get theirs. Time Life recently ran an article citing the "millennials" as a version of what the "uber rich" of old times were like. Extremely entitled, bored easily, stimulant oriented...basically a three year old. And this is what can both offer hope and hindrance, depending on the way these characteristics are shaped.

Fierce inventors of change and new discoveries come from folks who are wired like this.

But many more are simply annoying because they have all the attitude without the inherenet drive or talent.

The toss up is hard.

And public assistance...permanent alimony...

So much we need to really develop the ability to communicate and understand better in order to truly make positive and healthy needed changes. Those topics are for another day.

But quality of life, freedom to enjoy life, and the ability to do so...these are subjective questions needing qualitative and quantitative answers.

No wonder Powerball is so popular.

In the end...we all want to be able to breathe and relax.

Welcome to the new American Dream.