Ticket to Paradise?

Yes, I am going to buy a Powerball ticket. As I told my son-in-law, aside from a few personal splurges my goal would be to become a full-time philanthropist. The idea of being able to help causes and projects I believe in is a fantasy well worth the two-dollar price of a ticket.

High on my list of projects to fund:

• Bridge Columbia
• Blessings in a Backpack
• Bridges to Housing Stability
• A certain local baker's dream for a better kitchen in Oakland Mills
• Merriweather Park in Symphony Woods

Last night I had the opportunity to see the musical Matilda at the Kennedy Center in DC. Maybe it has something to do with my age, but I am much more profoundly moved by the vision and work it must have taken to create the Kennedy Center itself than anything else about the experience. Arts spaces are so important to our culture, a sign of who we are.

It must have taken a lot of money and a lot of political will to bring the Kennedy Center into being. I thought a lot last night how it is hard to get people in positions of power to agree on anything these days. A dream project from one side of the aisle is the subject of derision from the other. I wonder if the Kennedy Center could get built today.

I don't know if you remember, but long-term plans for Merriweather Park in Symphony Woods include an Arts Village. It's a long way off but if I won the Powerball you can be sure it would be a high priority for me. Columbia and Howard County are bursting with performing arts groups and yet we have quite a limited number of performance venues. What a thrill it would be for me to help bring that Arts Village into existence.

A two-dollar dream doesn't get you very far. I'm quite clear on how unlikely a Powerball win would be. It's still deliciously tantalizing, though. As to my personal splurge?

I'd like a treehouse.