A few days ago Becky Ogle, who works for the Union County Schools Technology Department, gave me a gift of appreciation. It was a yellow mug bearing the school system’s logo, and it contained a few goodies in it (ink pen, note pad, a 3-in-1 “phone buddy”). Becky said the cup would turn orange if I filled it with a cool drink and ice cubes. She gave me two, one for me and one for my Administrative Assistant, Angela Henderlight. Each cup had a raffle ticket, and a drawing was to be held I read a post on Facebook a few days later.

I kept one of the mugs and its contents and passed the other along to Angela as instructed. I had a fifty percent chance of keeping a winning mug, and who knows what the chances were of winning with any particular mug (I don’t know how many mugs were distributed). My luck usually runs like that of the gentleman in one episode of The Andy Griffith Show. A contest was rigged for that man, reputed to be a “jinx”, to win. Every ticket in the hat had the winning number, which was his, but he pulled out the hat size instead.

Earlier this week, Becky appeared in my door and said, “Has she rubbed it in yet?” It turns out Angela won a prize. I gave her the winning ticket and kept a dud. Angela won several goodies, notably a backpack and what I consider to be a nice lunchbox with several other goodies inside.

Giving away the winning ticket reminded me of what Roy Muncey, one of my former school bus drivers and a suitor of my mother’s, once said, “If it was raining pitchforks, they’d miss my !@#$ plate!”

Oh, well. Angela is most deserving, and she gave me a soup mug from her winning package. I assured her that this wasn’t necessary, but I am appreciative of the soup mug and will use it to heat ramen noodles at lunch during the work day. It does not surprise me that I gave away the winning ticket. I blame it on being left handed in a right handed world!

I comfort myself that I did not give away a multi-million lottery ticket, though I know Angela well enough to know that she would have shared the cash with me. And I know my greedy self well enough that I might just have let her. Let’s just say that I am happy with the soup mug and joy in the anticipation of all the work lunches I will eat from that vessel.

Life is a mystery, like a piñata. Sometimes you get some of the candy, other times you get whacked in the head by the poor blindfolded kid who is trying to break the piñata, sometimes you’re the stick breaking the piñata, and sometimes you are the piñata! Everybody knows what’s going to happen to the poor piñata.

The good news is that as long as there’s life there’s hope. Even the piñatas are decorative and beautiful until the point the stick whacks them to pieces.

The great hymnist Phillip P. Bliss expressed the concept so beautifully in his 1873 composition “Dare to Be a Daniel”. I have seen this song hundreds of times over the years as I have flipped through various hymnals in churches but have never heard the tune until just a few minutes ago when I accessed it on YouTube. It is a short, simple but beautiful melody that would be worth your time to search out and listen to. The lyrics are beautiful:
(Source: https://library.timelesstruths.org/music/Dare_to_Be_a_Daniel/ Retrieved June 2, 2020)

1. Standing by a purpose true,
Heeding God’s command,
Honor them, the faithful few!
All hail to Daniel’s band!
o Refrain:
Dare to be a Daniel,
Dare to stand alone!
Dare to have a purpose firm!
Dare to make it known.
2. Many mighty men are lost,
Daring not to stand,
Who for God had been a host
By joining Daniel’s band.
3. Many giants, great and tall,
Stalking through the land,
Headlong to the earth would fall,
If met by Daniel’s band.
4. Hold the Gospel banner high!
On to vict’ry grand!
Satan and his hosts defy,
And shout for Daniel’s band.

The hymn is based on Daniel 1:8 and Psalm 17:3. It is a beautiful way to summarize a certainty that wise people consider: this life has many choices, eternity has two. Choose wisely, Dear Reader.