A few minutes later, an older lady won $240 in the same pool. A short, frumpy woman, she's a regular spending countless hours sitting and talking to whoever takes time to reply. She lost her job and isn't prepared for retirement. She's been talking about selling her house so she can keep getting by somehow.
When handed the money in an envelop with her name written on it, she was magically transformed into a little girl on Christmas morning. With a silent smile she counted the money, put it back in the envelop and ordered her breakfast.
Everyone wasn't so lucky. My daughter Kristen worked throughout the Super Bowl, also trying to make ends meet, though there were no customers in her restaurant and no television to draw them inside. So she spent the time studying and doing homework for school where she's trying to become a nurse.
It's funny when you have the opportunity to peek behind the curtain of someone's life for a glimpse behind the scenes. Just as when Dorothy ripped the Wizard's curtain at Oz and saw him manipulating machines to portray himself as something other than who he was, most of us do the same.
We come across as confident, funny, immune to doubt and know exactly what we're doing. The truth though is we all have cracks in our confidence, the laughter is often to cover despair, self-doubt prevails and we're just praying we're heading in the general right direction.
When the great and powerful Oz finally came out from behind his curtain he was a kind, insecure, bumbling sort of wizard who tried his best. In the end, that's all any of us can do so it's sad when so many spend so much effort to portray themselves as someone other than who they really are.
Today I'll take my cue from a waitress, an old woman who doesn't know what's next and my daughter whose just struggling to become something better. They're on the right side of the curtain, just being who they are, warts and all.
It's hard not to respect that.
And to celebrate it.
Because that's the way God made us.
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