Mark Pavilons
Ignoring the odds in life

I guess I'm mathematically challenged.

While I can calculate percentages in my head, I really have an aversion to mathrelated issues.

Why else would I buy lottery tickets each week, in the face of 14 million-to-one odds? It's been said that lotteries are really just a tax on those who can't do or understand math. Count me in!

Odds aside, millions of us average working stiffs dish out a few bucks every week, in hopes of striking it rich. It's easy to rationalize, too. I contend that someone is destined to win, at least once a week. With potentially four millionaires crowned each and every week, the lottery helps create roughly 200 lucky millionaires each year. And that's nothing to sneeze at.

Why shouldn't one of those happy people be me? I am worthy and deserving of such good fortune. I am a very nice person to boot.

I would help my fellow citizens with my new-found riches. I'd be a much more active consumer and I'd purchase real estate, contributing to the Town's tax base. I'd likely purchase a new vehicle and buy my gas locally, helping the global economy. I'd wear designer fashions, helping to improve the lives of Third World slave labour. I'd eat out more often good news for local restaurants, not so good news for cows, chickens and pigs.

I'd buy some of those fancy mustards, imported hot peppers and the like.

I would buy a magazine or newspaper subscription and perhaps get a satellite dish.

Wow. See how just one new wealthy individual can really have an impact on economies of scale?

Until that magical combination of six numbers materializes, all I'm really contributing to is the lottery corporation's profits. But even there, too, I'm helping Ontario's health care system with a needed injection of funds.

See how I can rationalize all of my reckless lottery spending?

The odds, although more realistic, are in play at the slots or tables at our casinos. While our chances of winning a few jackpots are better than being struck by lightning, there's a reason casinos generate millions in revenue each and every day.

Most of us ignore the odds regarding accidents and disease, until it hits close to home.

I've been very fortunate (knocking on a large piece of wood) so far, in that I've never been in a major automobile accident.

But every day, it's estimated that 8 or 9 Canadians are killed on our roads. That's more than 2,900 people every year! What a terrible human waste.

We are almost ignorant to the headlines each day on the news. We hear about a tragedy that claims a mother, father, child or teen. Sometimes we take a nanosecond to pause and reflect, glad it's no one we know.

But one day it may be someone we know and love.

Add to the numbers killed are the thousands and thousands of family members who must pick themselves up and carry on. The pain and suffering must be immense.

And that's just from one single cause.

We all know that heart attack and stroke, as well as cancer, are leading killers in this country. Unfortunately, most of us likely know someone who's been hit with one of these ailments.

And for those who still think that cancer doesn't touch the lives of children, just visit Sick Kids one day, or call up the stats on the Internet.

Many of us expect to contract a disease or fall into disrepair in our declining years our 70s or 80s.

That's the way it used to be. Today, and into the future if the numbers keep climbing, most of us will be lucky to reach 65. That's still far too young to pass away, in my opinion. Still so much living to do.

It's estimated cancer will touch one in three Canadians one in every family. So far, I've lost one parent to cancer, and the odds are bleak indeed (again, knocking on a large tree).

Those of us in our 30s and 40s, busy with our jobs and raising our kids, spend little time dwelling on the unthinkable. And yet, in literally hundreds of local households, our neighbours are dealing with it now, today. People are dying of dreaded diseases earlier than ever before. We're all getting sicker.

Maybe we'll all live long, happy lives. Maybe all of our kids will grow up to be

kind, compassionate and successful adults. Perhaps humankind will meet and defeat all challenges that we face, so our race can venture out into space one day and visit other worlds.

And maybe not.

We're powerful creatures, with many wonderful qualities. The Creator gave us incredible tools and strong minds, but He did not give us clairvoyance or immortality.

Genetic conditions are passed down from generation to generation. Diseases are becoming stronger; more difficult to defeat. Toxins are building up in our bodies and our environment.

And the odds keep changing.

I am afraid of losing my loved ones. I am also terrified of one day entering the eternal darkness of nothingness.

We can't live our lives in fear. But we can try to beat the odds.

We must, or at least should, live each day like it were our last.

"Do all the good you can, by all the means you can, in all the ways you can, in all the places you can, at all the times you can, to all the people you can, as long as ever you can."

John Wesley