{"id":191,"date":"2009-09-27T12:38:43","date_gmt":"2009-09-27T12:38:43","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/everydayethics\/2009\/09\/if-you-won-the-lottery.html"},"modified":"2009-09-27T12:38:43","modified_gmt":"2009-09-27T12:38:43","slug":"if-you-won-the-lottery","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/everydayethics\/2009\/09\/if-you-won-the-lottery.html","title":{"rendered":"If You Won the Lottery…"},"content":{"rendered":"

I’m pretty proud of my Midwestern work ethic<\/a>; efficient, steady, reliable. Still, I spend a lot of time imagining what I would do with my lottery winnings – pay off student loans, pay off family debts, buy a house (or three), invest, dole out a million or so to close friends. You know, the usual.<\/p>\n

When I was in India a couple of years ago, I awoke early one morning to voices in the kitchen. Grumpy, groggy, jet-lagged, hair askew, I stumbled into the kitchen to find my mom talking to the milkman in the kitchen.
\nMy mother motioned me over so she could introduce me; she seemed fairly excited. I wasn’t in the mood to meet anyone, let alone the milkman, but I tried to put my best face on.<\/p>\n

It wasn’t until he left that I found out why my mom was so excited for him. Apparently, our milkman in India had become a millionaire (yeah, millionaire) by buying a couple acres of land in a prime area before the I.T. boom. It was an urban legend, once in million Cinderella story. (And then they made a movie about it, I think it was called Slumdog Millionaire or some such. I kid, I kid.)<\/p>\n


\nWhat made the story especially notable to my mother (and apparently to
\nme, since I’m writing about it two years later) was that even with the
\nmillions of dollars he’d fallen into he continued to deliver milk to
\nhis route day after day, stopping to chat with his customers,
\nfulfilling his responsibilities. He bought an extra buffalo or two to
\nadd to his business, bought a house for his parents and got married.
\nOtherwise, he continued to live much the same as he always did.<\/p>\n

My mother, who loves a rags to riches story as much as anyone, had
\nasked him why he didn’t quit work to travel and lie on a beach
\nsomewhere. His answer? His parents had taught him to work hard, have a
\npurpose in life (even if that purpose was delivering milk on time every
\nday), and live the simple life – in sum, to maintain a good work ethic.
\nThat was their path to happiness and they wanted the same for their
\nson. <\/p>\n

Personally, I thought it was a heartwarming story, but most of my
\nfriends asked if the guy was crazy. I know you’ve all considered what
\nyou’d do if you won the lottery, so tell me this: would you continue to
\nwork if you came into millions? <\/b>Or would you live the high life?
\nDoes working (whatever work you may be doing; without outside help I
\nwould consider motherhood a full-time job as much as being the CEO of a
\ncompany) enhance your character and help you live a more ethical life?<\/p>\n

\n
poll by twiigs.com<\/a> <\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I’m pretty proud of my Midwestern work ethic; efficient, steady, reliable. Still, I spend a lot of time imagining what I would do with my lottery winnings – pay off student loans, pay off family debts, buy a house (or three), invest, dole out a million or so to close friends. You know, the usual.…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":198,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10,9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-191","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-by-padmini-mangunta","category-work-ethics"],"yoast_head":"\nIf You Won the Lottery... - Everyday Ethics<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/everydayethics\/2009\/09\/if-you-won-the-lottery.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"If You Won the Lottery... - Everyday Ethics\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"I’m pretty proud of my Midwestern work ethic; efficient, steady, reliable. 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In addition to writing for a various print and online publications, such as Parenting Magazine and iVillage, she was the Website Manager for the Henry Street Settlement, a social services and arts organization serving Manhattan's Lower East Side. Most recently, she worked on the Thai-Myanmar border as a writer for the Burma Human Rights Yearbook. Her curiosity about human nature, coupled with duel streaks of idealism and Midwestern pragmatism, developed into an ongoing discussion with friends, family and strangers on ethical quandaries. When she's not asking \"Why?\" you might have trouble finding her, as her hobbies include nosing around used bookstores, exploring the world (near and far), meeting new people and occasionally twiddling her thumbs while daydreaming.","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/everydayethics\/author\/pmangunta"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/everydayethics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/191","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/everydayethics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/everydayethics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/everydayethics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/198"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/everydayethics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=191"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/everydayethics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/191\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/everydayethics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=191"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/everydayethics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=191"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/everydayethics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=191"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}