paraphrasing Mr. Twain….
"A man who is a pessimist before he is 50, knows too much; if he's an optimist after age 50, he knows too little."
I have two dreamcatchers hanging on my bedroom wall….t'ain't that I believe in 'em, of course, I ain't superstitious at all, knock on wood, but I just figure that stayin' on the good side of Providence can't hurt….
Brother John sez, "If you don't buy a lottery ticket, you can't win." I tell him that if I don't buy one, I can't lose my dollar. Not that my dollar is worth all that much these days, be sort'a like maybe a nickel (a dime, at most) back when I wuz a boy…
Back then, a nickel 'ud buy a 12 ounce bottle of Pepsi-Cola, which was the cola of choice in Greenup County, Ky….
The reason Pepsi wuz the cola of choice in that corner of the world wuz two-fold…Coca-Cola didn't think there wuz enuff business there to bother with 'n Gaylord Smith (dad's cousin) drove a Pepsi truck 'n he knew everybody in Greenup county…I think Gaylord prob'ly ended up in sales becuz of his Uncle B.D. Parsons…
Uncle B.D. wuz a horsetrader 'n seems like he always had a smile on his face 'n a hand in his pocket ('n if you wudn't careful, a hand in your pocket as well)...
Uncle B.D. taught me a lesson about gambling when I wuz still a little boy 'n most of my uncles 'ud let me win at pitching pennies….not Uncle B.D….he kept my pennies 'n taught me about losing….
Some time after that, I learned while the race might not always go to the fastest or the battle to the strongest, that's the way to bet….in other words, odds! And with Uncle B.D., the odds were that if you gambled with him, you'd lose...
Odds are that if you bet with the odds, you'll win more often than you lose…it's got to be a wonderful feeling when you bet on a longshot 'n you win big bucks…trouble is, it don't happen very often…that's why they call 'em longshots…'n betting against the odds is what allows big money to build fancy casinos so's you can lose your dollar in sumptious splendor…as a matter of fact, it's your dollar ('n those of a lot of other people) that pay for those sumptious splendiferous casinos, but you knew that…..
'n again paraphrasing Mr. Twain…."I am now rising from affluence to poverty."
No comments:
Post a Comment