"The Strike Pot" subtitled: "Things Seem To Work Out For Rachel, Pt.2"

Eric, a young man in our bowling league, stepped onto the alley and readied himself to throw. He had one shot—only one—to get a strike. If he got the strike, he would win $379.00. That’s how the “strike pot” works. The strike pot is a little side competition in our bowling league. People buy tickets and the tickets are entered intro a drawing. One ticket is drawn and whoever has that ticket gets to throw one shot for a strike.

A group of people stood watching quietly as Eric made his approach and threw his shot. As soon as his ball hit the pins, right in the sweet spot—it’s called the “pocket”—it was clear that he had his strike and he won the $379.00! A cheer went up and Eric thrust his fist into the air with a big smile on his face.

It’s a pretty nice way to win $379 bucks.

The guy who runs our league will usually select a random person from the league to perform the actual drawing for the strike pot, from a small container filled with tickets. Tonight, the person who pulled the ticket—Eric’s ticket—was my daughter Rachel.

Several minutes after Eric won the strike pot, he came over to our table and asked, “Was it someone from this table who pulled my ticket?”

We said, “yes” and we pointed to Rachel.

Eric said, “Thank you, Rachel.”  And he handed her some money. Rachel loves getting money—and she loves spending money, too, but that’s another story. She had a smile on her face that, I think, might have been a little bigger and a little happier than Eric’s was when he got his strike. But it’s hard to tell for sure because they were both smiling a lot.

Rachel counted her money—actually, she counted her money about four or five times, it’s the kind of issue upon which she likes to have a high degree of certainty—and reported to us that Eric had given her nine dollars. Hey, think about it, she merely reached her hand into a container and pulled out a ticket. It was an action that took less than 5 seconds and it netted her nine dollars.

It’s a pretty nice way to win nine bucks.

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: Things seem to work out for Rachel.