A flip of a coin, a spin of the wheel,a turn of a card...

Life is a gamble, isn't it? You work hard, eat right, exercise... and, in the end, you get cancer, or Alzheimer's, or get hit by a texting teen while having lunch at a sidewalk cafe. Ok, the odds are pretty much in your favor that none of those will happen to you. But that doesn't stop the ads, does it?

I was thinking about this as I drove toward Biloxi once again on Sunday. And why was I heading for Biloxi? Because my raison d'être desired it. And, as any husband who has survived 25 years of marriage to the same woman will tell you, keeping the "boss" happy is the smartest thing you can do. We do not discuss these trips, we do not debate them, we just take them.

I, of course, will not do anything more than token gambling. Instead, I will play a couple of rounds of golf, play endless games on my laptop, and do some reading. I find gambling in casinos somewhat boring. It is not exciting to lose money. I do not feel the thrill even when I win (a rare enough occasion). It's not that I don't appreciate the adrenalin rush when a risk plays out to my benefit, it's that I do not like the downer that hits when the risk doesn't play out to my benefit.

We know that gambling is often seen as an addiction. In truth, it isn't. But it is the nature of humans to turn it into one. And not all humans. The vast majority of us do not gamble with our money. We seek safe places for it, we try to invest it wisely, we try to be careful how we spend it. But some of us, a relative handful of the population, let it control their lives.

Faye isn't one of those but I am glad we do not live in Las Vegas, Reno, or Biloxi... or any other city with casinos. I think it helps to be at least an hour's drive from the nearest row of slot machines. I don't believe she would let it take over her life (and, by extension, mine) but... it's best to not have the temptation nearby.