Dear Mark,
On my last six trips to Gulfport, MS, I’ve come
home a winner playing slots. I believe it’s beyond
luck now. I just have this certain feeling when to play
a particular machine. I’ve been so successful lately
that I feel I should go to dollar machines, or higher,
versus the quarter ones and win even more money. Am
I on to something here? Jon S.
Jon, may I share two stories with you? One deals with
arrogance and the other with the incessant craving for
more. An old Polish folk tale tells of a fisherman who
lives in a hovel by the sea and catches a magical fish
that grants his humble desire for a cabin and enough
to eat. After a week, he is no longer satisfied and
demands larger quarters, and once again the fish grants
him his wish. The sequence of catch and release repeats
itself for six weeks until the
fisherman lives in
a castle, then demands the finest palace. For his
insolence, the fish casts him back to the hovel
by the sea.
For the second story, let’s stick with the
water theme. “God himself cannot sink this
ship.” Those were the quotes throughout the
newspapers prior to the Titanic making her first
passage across the big pond. She was appropriately
named, as Titans always dared to challenge the gods,
and for their arrogance they were cast down into
hell.
At best, Jon, by challenging the gaming gods absorbed
in your spirit of rapacity, you’re on the Atlantic
ocean in a one-man lifeboat with a slow leak. And
the sound I hear? Pssssssss.
