To the great dismay of the husband, I occasionally like to play the lottery. Yes, I know that the likelihood of winning is minuscule and I would be better off to burn, or eat, my dollar bills. That said, I love the few hours of dreaming about what I would do if I won. I could totally relate to Principal Sanders’ list of lottery winner dreams for Harper High School in this This American Life podcast.
My friend, and fellow Rutgers College grad, artist Jody Servon recently launched an awesome project exploring people’s lottery winning dreams called “Dreams for Free“. She asks:
About her project:
“I am collecting dreams from people in exchange for a lottery ticket. For every ticket that I distribute, I ask the recipient to write down his or her desires for what they would do if they won. On each occasion, I purchase 50 tickets and give them to people I meet in public places such as city streets, restaurants, convenience stores, transportation centers, festivals, parks, and laundromats. I understand that the lottery is a complex social issue, but I am using these tickets to encourage people to dream big—bigger than they would if I were to give away dollar bills. What follows is a selection of dreams that people have shared. The dreams are organized by the different jackpot amounts from when I started this project in January 2012.”
On her site, she has excerpts of the handwritten wishes of her “dreamers” by jackpot size. She also shares her stories of distributing tickets and collecting dreams. Knowing Jody for as long as I have, I grinned reading these because I can imagine her interactions as if I was there, too. She encounters some surprising resistance and funny characters. What strikes me is the fact that most people have no idea what say $15,000,000 or $100,000,000 plus could buy and, also, how simple most the dreams are.
I have some favorites. I recommend reading through. Most of the posts have more detail and involve paying debts, helping family and giving back. As I said, most are pretty simple. Here is one that I especially like:
I like to think about my lottery dreams and to ask my friends for theirs. Paying all debts, helping family and travel rank high for my friends. Also, doing something for the better good – helping to eliminate poverty or childhood obesity for example. Emily even suggested that in certain small countries you could pretty much eliminate poverty. Something to consider. A few of us were chatting yesterday in the car and realized that some of your smaller lottery dreams are possible now without winning. That made me smile, too.
I am curious about your lottery dreams (if you have some). In fact, I bought 10 tickets for the $139 M Megamillions drawing on May 7. I will send the first 10 people to comment on this post with what they would do if they won $139 M Megamillions. I have numbered the tickets and will send them out to commenters on Monday, May 6. If you win, awesome, I hope you make your dreams come true. All that I ask in return is that you pay it forward (and consider sponsoring this blog!)
Ready? Go? What are your dreams for the $139 million Megamillions jackpot? Are any of them possible now? Also, check out Jody’s projects at HERE or follow her on Twitter for fun found art pics and other good stuff!