$500 mil Doesn't impress Espresso baby

     To know me, you must know my one, true, deep addiction for which I unapologetically will continue the habit of until the day I die, and then, I hope to be buried with a carafe of it (you know-just in case).  Coffee, espresso, lattes, cappuccinos, macchiatos, pretty much anything made with a coffee bean.  Chocolate covered espresso beans? Crack rock.  So, that being said, one thing my father and I have always shared (and that he's shared with all my siblings as well) was the love of a good cup o' joe.  So, as an early Christmas gift (or maybe birthday? eh, it's one in the same), he bought me the very same espresso maker that he has.  It's a LOVELY machine....(insert dreamy eyes here)!  We received the Wonder a few days ago and couldn't wait to start playing with it and brewing some of that brunette mistress that calls to me like a siren.
     In true-to-form fashion, I sit down to read the instruction manual first.  Oh-not because that's what most people with common sense would do, but because I'm terrified to break the damn thing (we have a plague upon our house-we break anything and everything OVER the value of $5).  Ok, I am OCD enough that I'd have to read the manual first, even if we DIDN'T break things, so my neuroses do come in handy.  There's your usual this-is-that-thingie picture/number matchup, yada yada.  Then I get to the page of no-no's and there was this one particular no-no that grabbed my attention.....

.......I'm sorry....I think I may have misunderstood....so you're NOT supposed to put your baby on the espresso machine?  Or are they making a statement against gratuitous child modeling of random products?  Espresso baby don't care.  Espresso baby just stylin', waitin' for mom to make some lattes.  The symbols above the picture just add to my curiosity.  Are they saying "Attention! Wait!"  Or possibly "Hey! High 5 for espresso baby!"  Maybe "Yo! Stop!"...collaborate and listen, or it's Hammer Time!  I don't believe it would be In the Name of Love in this instance.  Anyway, espresso baby confused the crap out of me whist making me laugh so hard, I'll be honest, I may have peed a little.  Is this REALLY such an occurrence that we need to not only have a warning about it, but a PICTORIAL one at that?   As if saying, 'Hey mastermind, letting your baby crawl onto this machine might not be the best idea you've ever had' was one that really needed to be stated, let alone demonstrated graphically.  The most depressing thought in this whole quandary is that there actually had to BE someone who not only allowed their young child to play ON THE MACHINE, but who probably sued the manufacturer of said machine for not putting a warning about this very situation.

     Today got me thinking about espresso baby as I watched so many people stand in line to buy a Powerball ticket in the hopes of winning a mere $500 million dollars (sorry, can't help but picture Dr.Evil as I typed that).  People of every shape, size, and background buy these lottery tickets.  Hell, I bought one myself (seriously, $500 MILLION-espresso baby could buy his own franchise with that), but what would these people REALLY do with that much money?  Sure, you fantasize about what you would do, but when it came down to the nuts and bolts of it all, what on earth would you need so desperately with all that money?  Do you deserve that much money?  By deserve, I mean to you feel you'd be responsible, smart, wise, whatever with the money?  Would you buy an espresso maker then (possibly) sue the company because you let your toddler play on it?  

     Here's my point-with all that money just a few numbers away, do YOU feel you could handle all that it brings to your table (I mean that metaphorically)?  Would you help others or would you simply help yourself?  I come from a lower middle-class point-of-view, so it's not like I have money at all to spare, but I still can't imagine keeping so much when so many have so much less.  

      I was once told, when I was younger, that I had an overinflated idea of what was fair.  I still don't understand why that was a bad thing. 

      I don't feel the world owes me anything, least of all money.  If I have the opportunity to help someone, why wouldn't I?  Because no one helped me?  On the contrary, that's my motivation, I believe.  I've had to make it through most of my life on my own, learning things the hard way and always starting from the ground up.  It's made me a very independent person (sometimes, to a fault), but if I could ease someone else's hard times, maybe give them a step stool to start a little higher than ground level, that would be the real jackpot.  It sucks always being so far down, never seeming to get any higher.  My life here at the bottom hasn't been a bad one, just difficult.  I don't regret my life at all.  If I turned around and made someone else's life a little less difficult, then all the lesson's I've learned through my struggles will have come to fruition.  

     The only value of learning a lesson is applying what that lesson taught you. 

    So, my hope is this-whoever wins that obscene amount of money tonight, may you be blessed with the wisdom to turn around and make the world better for all that it's provided to you.  Well, you and espresso baby.