Forsaken by Fortune


On my way back home from my workplace, I see some familiar faces, one of them being that of a lottery ticket seller. He got me thinking of many like him...
A lottery ticket seller is probably the most sought-after man. It must be fascinating for him to watch thousands throng to his shop every day, each one hoping that fortune would smile upon him some day. He is the witness to numerous displays of hope, happiness and heartbreaks, yet we know very little about him. He is not as important as the ticket he sells, after all.
A lottery ticket seller is likely to be a rather insignificant-looking person: more noticed for what he sells than for who he is. It is needless for him to convince his customers to buy the tickets he has for sale. One can imagine what he goes through the moment he begins his day. He is barraged with a salvo of screams, requests and questions from all those who believe in gambling with their destinies! He surely feels sorry for the faces he sees everyday - faces that grow sunken and dark with time, faces that throw accusing glances at him, faces that wonder why every ticket fails, faces that silently demand their money back for wasted tickets, faces that become too shrunken and disappointed to be consoled. And then there are the winners. Some thank him and others don't even remember him.
One wonders if the lottery ticket seller has ever tried his luck at the game he lives off. To him, the hysterical sea of humanity, paying him every day for every new hope nurtured by them, may seem like an insane lot - too greedy for good fortune and too eager to take the easier way out. But the lottery ticket seller is a sensible man - one who knows for certain that his business will not hit a rough patch, not as long as people believe in sudden strokes of luck.

He changes people's lives but there is little that changes his...

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