777

I heard a clip of Reese Witherspoon on the radio the other day, talking about her philosophy on the game of life when it comes to children. You know what I'm talking about - the debate whether we should continually reinforce our children's self-esteem by rewarding them for their participation in sports, spelling bees etc... etc..., or do we merely reward their accomplishments and successes? Do we hand out medals, trophies and ribbons to all the competitors, or just to the winners?



Reese fell firmly on the side of awarding only the winners, citing how it builds character for children when they learn both sides of the story - winning and losing. I happen to agree with her, but at this point in time haven't found many opportunities to teach Lily about the losing side of life.



At various times, she's taken assorted swimming, gymnastics and "Sportball" lessons, but none of these have been in a team format, and aren't really competitive in nature.



So far the learning opps have been slim pickings with the more non-athletic games as well. You name it - Candy Land, Go Fish, Chutes and Ladders, Old Maid - The Bug has an incredible track record for winning. Game of chance (Chutes and Ladders) or game of skill (Memory) - it doesn't matter. Swap out the opponents - Mom, Pete, one of the neighbor boys - no difference. And at the tender age of four, she's already cultivated one hell of a poker face. Just try to get her to tip her hand when you're about to snatch the Old Maid from her deck. She's probably batting a 90% overall win percentage. To top it all off, every time she does win, she sort of dips her chin, coyly looks out from under her eyelashes, and says "I win?" The question mark is fully evident in her voice, but her smirk tells the world she knows dang well she has won...again.



I chalk up the win percentage to the fact that her birth weight was 7 lbs 7.7 ozs. on the nose. Yep - triple lucky 7s .



The Pythagoreans called 7 the perfect number. Days of the week, ancient planets, number of Roman deities, Arabian holy temples, Ancient Wonders of the World, Stephen Covey's habits of highly effective people, Snow White's dwarves - all 7. The list goes on.



So even though I know I probably shouldn't be thinking like this, the thought has maybe crossed my mind that I could ask Lily to act as sort of a good luck charm. Help pick out some Lotto numbers for me or something like that. (Don't start with me..You know you'd think about it too if your multistate lottery had crossed the $250 million dollar mark like mine did last week).



I've refrained so far, but only owing to the fact that we left the state to visit Gammy and Papa for a few days, and the jackpot had been won upon my return.



For now, I'll try to re-focus my energies not on leveraging my child's luck, but seeking out new ways to teach her more fully about winning - and losing.



But just watch out when she turns 21. There's a room at Caesar's Palace with our name on it.