Who needs casinos - life is a gamble! Just getting out of bed in the morning is a gamble. I could fall in the tub, have an accident on the way to work, get fired, choke on dinner or trip and fall while I'm putting on my pajamas. I get out of bed and play the game because it's the only game in town.
When I was learning to play the marriage game, there was a fifty-fifty chance of a good meal. The first - and only time - John brought someone home for dinner without warning me wasn't one of the good meals. Frozen veal cutlets smothered with canned sauce and topped with processed cheese was a challenge, but camouflaging John's and my half cutlets was a bigger one. When John complained about his small portion, I could only hope the bruise on his shin would be bigger.
When you take a spouse, you take a chance; but when my father got married for the third time, he proved two wrongs can make a right. Of course, when his third wife died, he proved that four is really the charm.
I'm not charmed when it comes to gift giving. I want to give people something they want; but if they want something, why haven't they bought it. If the recipients describe the gift as useful, I know they had one. If they describe it as interesting, I know they didn't want one.
Then there's used cars. When you buy a used car, you have to trust that the person who previously owned it told the dealer the truth and that the dealer told you the truth. Nevertheless, if the car was only driven by a little old lady to church, the little old lady must have lived a long way from church or had a lot to confess.
Driving any car on LA freeways is a risk. Driving ten miles can take ten minutes or two hours. Sometimes the traffic is caused by an accident and sometimes it's caused by too many cars going to the same place at the same time. Driving is what my grandmother called one of life's lessons in patience.
After a series of life lessons I learned not to gamble on horses or cards or the spin of a wheel. My biggest gamble is getting up in the morning and hoping it will be a "bettor" day.