WINDFALL CURSE

Forbes magazine had a recent article that hit upon an old topic: the curse of lottery winnings.

Historically, the vast majority major lottery winners go bust within 7 years of their happy day. The reasons follow a typical pattern: joy of new found wealth; quitting work; spending on new houses, cars, etc; family members wanting a share; friends hanging about like a posse; bad business decisions; lawsuits and eventually losing it all - - - the money, relationships, family and friends.

The article went through several examples of winners feeling that they were cursed. They complained about intense media coverage, loss of privacy, family members they never heard of asking for money and favors, shady investments, bad advisors, to being robbed, having addictions, drug abuse, intense gambling issues and the pressure to be somebody you are not.

Sudden wealth to most naive people means Christmas every day. But that feeling is not sustainable. It blurred the reality of the situation. There is a dramatic honeymoon period when everything is great. Then the pressures of spending the windfall come to bear. It is a pendulum swinging from one extreme to the other – from joy, excitement, and happiness to emptiness, resentment, and sometimes even despair. At a certain point the money begins to control the winners' lives. Things can get out of control quickly.

In LOST, likable Hugo Reyes was the big winner. He won the lottery jackpot. He immediately knew it would change his life, but not for the better. That is why he tried to keep his good fortune a secret. But that secret ruined his relationship with his best friend and his potential girlfriend. And once he claimed the prize and went into the public spotlight, tragedy after tragedy hit him.

One of the snake bites was his father returning just to get a piece of the lottery action.

Hurley never really felt the joy, excitement and happiness of being a winner. The lottery was so overwhelming to his simple way of life as to cause him to faint, then retreat into himself. He resented winning the lottery. He resented that people only looked at him one way: as a sucker money bag. He fell into despair because he was in deeper in an emotional hole than when he was simply poor. That depression caused him to search for an answer to his misery. And he then believed that the Numbers he used were cursed. Therefore, he was cursed. And everyone around him was cursed. And bad things happen to cursed people. 

And that layer cake of being cursed followed Hurley throughout the seasons. He could never get away from it. He digested all of the events around him through the filter of his lottery curse. He kept his winnings a secret from the survivors, until he could finally trust. And even then, they did not believe him. In an odd way, that made Hurley feel better because his friends liked him not for his money, but for Hurley.

But in the end, Hurley never got free from his curse. He only found happiness in death - - - being reunited with Libby in the after life. Which meant that all the empty time between the island and the after life, Hurley found no one else to share his life with (otherwise that person would have been with him in the sideways church). One could conclude that even though Hurley left the island alive, he remained dead inside. He fostered his curse for the rest of his life. Which is a sad, sad commentary for one of the most liked characters on the show.