I just finished my stint of working on selling raffle tickets for a “dream home”.   The house is donated and all of the money goes to a children’s cancer charity, but it takes a lot of time from us volunteers.  So I had some time to think about the nature of dreams.

This is the flyer that we gave to people to entice them to part with $100.   Doesn’t it look lovely with the mountains and pines in the background?   The actual home is in a bit of a depression, so I don’t think the mountains are visible.   It’s out on the windy prairie and all of the trees are spindly recently transplanted things.   Oh yeah, there are houses right next to it, about 10 feet away.

Of course as it is a display home, it is tastefully furnished, and neat as a pin.

And if you ever dreamed of sitting in the bathtub, AND being able to see your neighbors, then this house is that dream come true.

But the house is new and shiny, and we were able to sell a lot of tickets (but not all of the ones available), so I think we did some good. The winning ticket was plucked out of the bin by a young cancer survivor and was won by a person from the town south of here, so both of their dreams came true.

I have dreams as well, even if they don’t include this house.

And this is how I dream.   I sometimes buy lottery tickets.  I don’t consider them to be a waste of money, I think of them as buying a dream for only a dollar.   With each ticket I imagine the fun I could have spending all that lovely extra money, then it is back to reality as I have never won and have a dollar less in my wallet.  (Each of these tickets had exactly one of the lucky numbers, and you need to have at least three lucky numbers to win a prize).  But it’s cheap fun for a moment.