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Lottery Winners Come Down to Earth

This Rock Volume 19, Number 3   March 2008     Reasons for Hope By Cherie Peacock   Letters   Are the Gospels Myth? By Carl E. Olson   Further Reading   Baptism Saves You By Fr. Dwight Longenecker   Is the Education of Women a Modern Idea? By Catherine Brown Tkacz   Early Christian Education   Co-Ed Religion: the Double Monastery   Visual Reminders of Feminine Wisdom   Further Reading   The Sin of Greed: When We Worship the Golden God By Christopher Kaczor   Greed Leads to Other Sins   Lottery Winners Come Down to Earth   The Angelic Doctor on the Virtue of Liberality   Further Reading   Damascus Road The Fall, Revisited By Deacon Bill Turrentine   By the Book The Divinity of the Holy Spirit By Tim Staples   Eyes to See Everyone's a Critic By Michael Schrauzer   Truth be Told Convent Horror Stories By Robert P. Lockwood   Quick Questions   Last Writes By Karl Keating    Subscribe    Permissions

As it turns out, lottery winners—after the initial shock has worn off—are no more happy than they were before winning the lottery. Indeed, some seem less happy. In his book Myths, Lies and Downright Stupidity, John Stossel interviews Curtis Sharpe, lottery winner of five million dollars, and Sherry Gagliardi, winner of 26 million dollars:

Curtis Sharpe: For a time, it seemed like I was in a dream world, you know?
Stossel: Did you come down to earth?
Curtis Sharpe: Oh, yes. I came down, you know. I came down to earth. I got divorced from my first wife and married my second wife, and I spent a lot of money on the wedding, you know.
Stossel: A hundred thousand dollars on a grand wedding.
Curtis Sharpe: Yes, that didn’t last five years. You know what I’m saying?
Sherry Gagliardi: I was numb for three years.
Stossel: But you must have been happy.
Sherry Gagliardi: Yes and no. I got a divorce two years after we had won. People have a misconception about having money. You go out and you go, "Oh, that’s what I want, I’ll buy it." Well, a couple weeks later, its like, you know, that emptiness comes back. Then what?
Curtis Sharpe: I mean, how many suits can I wear? How many hats can I wear? You know what I am saying?