Today the Evil Geniuses had their first introduction to the evils (and merits, depending on which side you’re on) of gambling.

Evil Genius One (who is the true genius in this story), drew up four notes. See Exhibit A:

Exhibit A: The four cards. One says “bup-bawll” like the noise on Family Feud.

He placed these notes in a little box and began his spiel.

He talked long and lyrical about the lusciousness of Lindt chocolates (of which he happened to have a full box) and the luck we might encounter, by placing a mere fifty cents in his sweaty little palm. Fifty cents bought us one lucky dip, a one in four chance (which he assured us were ‘excellent odds’) of ‘earning’ a Lindt ball.

I had one dip, did my dough and declared myself out of the running.

Evil ‘Genius’ Two however, was smitten.

She hauled her money box upstairs, and gave him dollar after dollar after dollar, in an effort to procure just one small ball. Her luck was so bad, that eventually he had to show us the notes, to prove there actually was a winning one. He was holding all the cards and she was holding back the tears.

I told her to stop giving her money away. She said she couldn’t because “I’m so close now Mummy, I can’t stop. I just have to win one soon.”

I told her that wasn’t necessarily true, and anyway I had Mentos in my bag, and I would give her one for free.

I told him to give her a break and just give her a choccy. He said he couldn’t because, “That goes against the rules of the wager.”

Eventually she did get a bit of a run on, and won a few chocolates, to calm those jangly nerves.

At the end of it all I asked them if they had learned anything useful from all this illegal gambling.

Liam: Gambling is addictive and ace, especially if you are the one holding the cards. I don’t know why it is illegal. It’s an excellent way to make money, if you make the odds good enough.

Coco: Gambling is fun and exciting, a bit like a scary ride at Aussie World. You have to pay out a lot and you might have to be patient, but eventually you win. So it makes it worth it.

Great.

Epilogue: There are no Lindt balls left, and Coco has about 25cents to her name.

…From The Ashers xx

Kelly Exeter always tells me amazing and useful things.

I say ‘me’ but she actually tells all of us, it’s just that the things she chooses to say seem to be all about me. She has a knack of doing that thing that Sylvia Plath once said about being “a voice speaking from my own soul”.

Yesterday she gave me some great things, all of which have been running around my head all night. I had a night of wakefulness and what seemed like non-stop dreaming, so I know there was a lot to process.

One of the things that stuck with me was the concept of space. Of how two things simply cannot occupy the same physical space at the same time. The blog link was about thoughts, and how we can’t have a positive and a negative thought at the same moment, so we need to prioritise just how much mind-space we want to use up with junk.

I’ve expanded the idea to consider our physical space, the toy cupboard in particular. Take this lego on my floor right now for example:

They say there is an average of 67 blocks of Lego per person on Earth. I think we have more than our share.

There are so many of those pointy little foot-stabbers in that bucket, that it is overflowing. The Evils get the bucket out most days, and most days I have to shove it all back in the cupboard and close the door quickly, lest it all come tumbling out.

Me: Liam, I think we have too many toys, and waaay too much Lego. We can’t possibly fit another toy into that cupboard and the Lego bucket itself is overflowing. You can’t possibly use it all, and in fact I think you only ever use the top layer. Perhaps we could give some to some kids who don’t have any? The way it is right now you can never get a new toy, because two things can’t occupy the same space at the same time. You need to clear out, in order to make room for new things to come into your life.

Liam: I like the old things. I don’t want any new things. Other than computer games, and I have heaps of space on my hard drive for those.

Me: But there might be new things, new opportunities and experiences you don’t even know about yet, and you’re limiting yourself because you don’t have space to fit them into your life.

Liam: Don’t worry, I can get a bigger box.

So there you have it, the wisdom of Liam. No need to clear out the clutter, just get bigger, improve, stretch, create new boundaries.

Someone once said, “The mind, once expanded by a new idea, can never regain its original dimensions.”

Expand.

Oh, and he also solved the problem of getting to the bottom layers.

And that’s not even all of it!

Do you have Lego that appears to be breeding?

Do you have space for new stuff?

…From The Ashers xx