DELAYED GRATIFICATION

I normally don’t agree with the concept of delayed gratification. It’s a little too Calvinistic, too Puritan, too Salem-gone-awry for me. I like to enjoy the fruits of my labor as soon as possible. If it takes too long I might start to think the payoff isn’t really worth it. I want to read only the books that really appeal to me – if I get 100 pages in and if it hasn’t grabbed me, I want to put it down and be guilt-free. I like to paint walls – what a feeling of accomplishment: There it is in front of me – a beautiful wall, cantaloupe colored, white trim – fresh&clean!

There is one area though in which I like to delay a bit… Lotto results. I have a ticket, it could be worth several million, the drawing is Friday night… But I leave the ticket on my desk at work, and all through the weekend I can dream of what it will be like when I check the results Monday morning and find I’ve won… Will I quit my job immediately? How will I tell Juls & Alan? (With whom I have a 14-year standing agreement – whoever wins, splits with the others.) Call them? Wait till the evening and tell them in person? What will we do first? How fast can I get a real estate agent to show me houses? Should I go to Thailand or Spain? Cuba or India?

Yes, I like to delay a little bit and dream a lot. You can imagine my disappointment then, when I arrived at my office this morning, and couldn’t find my Lotto ticket!