It’s All In Your Mind

Recently, Claire and I had the joy of celebrating our 40^th wedding anniversary.  Through the help of Mick Smallridge, we were able to spend two nights at the fabulous Foxwoods resort and casino.  We had a great time.  Friday night we had the opportunity to eat with some of the high rollers and to take a tour of the resort.  We spent all day in the North American Indian museum on Saturday, and then went back to the resort and swam till late afternoon.  Then we were off to some fine dining followed by window shopping.

The next morning we had a great breakfast and then went to check out.  That was when we realized that others didn’t feel the same way as we did about the weekend.  It had to do with the fact that the most of the slot machines had broken down on Friday night and on into Saturday, along with the computers that read the bonus cards to be inserted before play.  That is the house system for keeping track of how much is spent so that some is repaid in the form of comps.

At checkout we started to hear from those in front of us and behind us and even along side of us about the perceived disasters of the weekend.  One woman starting shouting at the top of her lungs: “Watch Your Wallets!”  It seemed that someone had taken hers and she didn’t feel that she was getting the results from security that she wanted.  The one that I don’t think I will ever forget is the guy in front of us that had lost sixteen thousand dollars that morning in a game of cards.  He was not upset about losing what was, to us an incredible sum.  No, he was upset that they had no record of it so they could comp back half the price of his room.  Why worry about a couple hundred dollars if you have that kind of money to throw away?

This brought to mind the verse in Philippians 2:5: “Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus.”  In chapter 4 of the same book it says, “Finally, brethren, whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report; if there be any virtue, and if there be any praise, think on these things.”  When you really get down to it, these people know that these machines and computers were not working but they decided to use them anyway, and they received the results that one would expect.

On the other hand, Claire and I had decided that we would have a great time and took advantage of the other things that were offered by the resort.  We also got the results that we were looking for: A Great Time!  It was one to remember for the next 40 years!

Dan Laterza