Skip to main content

 Winning Little Lotteries



I’m sitting here at a rooftop bar enjoying the beautiful mountain breezes on a sunny afternoon along the Front Range of Colorado’s Rocky Mountains. Pretty much everyone at the bar, besides me, is dropping off a first-year student at CSU’s amazing Boulder campus. There is a very complex blend of emotions hanging palpably in the cool mountain air. 

The bartender, a 27-year-old military veteran and CU senior, is using their GI Bill benefits to build toward each parent’s dream, masterfully weaving a child’s hope into a parent’s worry. Suddenly - the bartender asks loudly “I accidentally poured a shot, would anyone like it for free?”

All of the parents looked hesitatingly at one-another before collectively deciding that doing shots has now moved into the “bad” behavior column. I’m like - “My Irish is authentic, I cannot pass on rye!”

It is very rare that a person might be granted the unwarranted fortune of opportunistic wealth. But, we are often given grace sufficient for the day. Unmerited fortune that gives us a few breaths - to catch our faith again or to continue to wrestle against it. 

I’ll take a free shot of whiskey every time. Without question, judgement, or worry.


Cheers y’all,


Steve


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Frank Turner FTHC

  Frank Turner is an English punk/folk singer/songwriter that just released his ninth solo album titled FTHC. Turner’s new album is unquestionably his most revealing and emotional work to date.   The song “A Wave Across a Bay” is an anthemic love ballad for Scott Hutchinson, a Scottish singer-songwriter and longtime friend of Turner who committed suicide in 2018. Turner is an active Humanist and philanthropist who supports many liberal causes, including assisted dying through the Dignity in Dying campaign.  The album’s seventh track is a recording titled “Miranda” that tells the story of Frank reconciling the distant and bitter relationship he had with his childhood father after the investment banker announced she was transgender and changed her name to Miranda. In an interview with The Guardian Turner explained - “Since then we’ve found our even keel. She’s really fun, really chatty and she cares. She’s interested in who I am and what I do, which my dad never was at all....
Post a Comment
Read more
 Ford's Follies In 1879, a young teenager named Henry Ford left his parent’s farm in Springwells Township, Michigan to work in the machine shops of Detroit. His father had given him a pocket-watch at age 12 and by 15 he had gained a reputation as an expert watch-smith. In 1893, Henry Ford became the chief engineer at the Edison Illuminating Company. Ford’s high-pressure job was keeping the electricity flowing through the city. He was on call 24 hours a day, every day of the year. Ford had no regular schedule, which took a toll upon his personal life, as well as his actual goal of building a gasoline-powered vehicle.  Working in his spare time, Ford produced his first working gasoline engine in 1893, and three years later he had completed his first horseless carriage called the Quadricycle. In 1898, Ford received his first patent for a carburetor. In 1899, Henry Ford found a group willing investors that allowed him to quit his job at the power company and join the Detroit Autom...
Post a Comment
Read more