"NOT A WINNER"

I am incredibly fortunate to be the father of the most amazing, compassionate, intelligent, and beautiful daughter I could possibly imagine. Yes, I'm a proud dad and my daughter often wonders whether I am just a cast member from the opening scene of "Matilda" singing "Miracle" while she rolls her eyes and wonders if she really is anything special.

She is.

I worry though, about her, and about her generation. For all the parenting skills I may or may not have, what am I (what are we) offering her generation? Increasing gun violence? The risk of dying from accidental fentanyl overdose? Exponentially rising income disparity (separation of haves and have nots)? Hyper partisanship? The end of the American/democractic experiment? "Forever chemicals"? Global warming with all of the hardship and death that seems so inevitable as we reach the eventual point of no return?

I could, of course, go on.

The other day I checked my lotto ticket at the corner drug store. The ticket reading machine displayed, "NOT A WINNER"

Is this how my daughter and her generation (and the generations beyond) will feel about their future?

Will my generation do anything to change their odds of winning, or will we just keep blindly hoping that somehow they will beat the odds that our generation and those generations before us have stacked against them?

I wonder.