Bingo!

I went to bingo last night at Awaysis to see if I could do better than I did the other time I went before my vacation. That night, I left with more pesos in my pocket than when I walked in.

I figured with the pouring rain, and the small venue, I would be a shoo-in for a win last night. It has been my experience at Colina Spay and Neuter Clinic Bingo that I almost always win something, whether it’s a raffle or a game. Ask anyone. Not last night.

The games are interesting at Awaysis, and can be far more complicated than straight-line bingo, and having the board on the wall is very helpful indeed.

So what makes luck? How does it work, really? Is it random, or can you make your own, as I have read is possible? It seems that good or bad luck attaches itself to you and can stick like glue. Some people thrive on calamity, and all kinds of strange things happen to them that don’t seem to happen to most other people. They get a lot of attention, and maybe that’s the secret to it.

Everybody loves a winner, but there is that sneaky, visceral joy when a winner falls down, can’t quite make it to the finish line, when the underdog finally bashes through that barrier to win. Against all the odds. What a champion! Then, look at the L O S E R. Crestfallen, crushed, unable to stand tall, and might be that way forever.

”Some people are happy just playing the game. Win some, lose some; it all evens out eventually.”

I don’t believe that for one second! Somebody else said, ”Show me a good loser and I’ll show you a LOSER.” My second husband, I think.

So, all of that meandering was because I didn’t win at bingo. Imagine how I would be if bingo were actually important? It’s a game, for the sake of all that’s holy, and no amount of practice will make you better at it. It is luck, plain and simple, added to a modicum of knowledge of numbers and letters. A chimpanzee would do as well.

Humans are competitive – it makes us interesting. Always striving to do better the next time, but seriously, not at bingo. However, as one of the 200 million bingo players worldwide, somebody out there has to have the secret to luck, and maybe even ‘dumb luck’ to boot.

There is the Law of Averages that may be the platform on which all gamblers stand: my turn to win is coming up because it always has in the past. Entire cities have been built around that foolishness that keeps us throwing coins in fountains, going to fortune tellers, and tea-leaf readers, and freaking bingo games.

I am trying to reverse my thinking: That I am contributing to the betterment of animals. See you at bingo tomorrow at Nacho Daddy. My fingers are crossed.