I just saw this headline:
Bigger Than Texas: Cowboy's Lottery Win
Lotteries are extraordinary things. When someone "down on his luck" wins we all get a sense of joy. This is partially because we believe that somehow a cosmic force has interfered on the side of good; in a world otherwise filled with bad news. For that theory to be true we would have to somehow justify the millions of people who buy lottery tickets, are good people and never, ever win. I usually say things like that and people will call it cold and cynical. I'm not cynical at all, really. I just think that it's ridiculous to believe that winners and losers of statistical games have their outcome influenced by divine intervention - or that there is divine intervention of any kind, for that matter.
The importance of lottery stories is that it gives us two things. The first is that the most important thing about information is that it is best presented in the form of a narrative; preferably one that either matches or directly opposes our sense of optimal cosmic configuration. We want to believe that good guys win, bad guys lose; that the star crossed lovers live happily ever after and that the slow started hero saves the universe. When those things happen we are satisfied; when they do not happen we are frustrated - but telling the story entertains. The second thing it gives us is that we ignore the reality of the graveyard of the mediocre. Most of our lives do not contain such drama and, in fact, are a mix of good things and bad things; wise decisions and foolish ones. At the time we make those decisions we do not have the benefit of the outcome. Fortunately for us, stories are told after the fact; thus, with the benefit of hindsight we weave and twist the facts of our lives to match the story that we feel it best fits.
Sometimes we like our story, sometimes we don't.
The power of this is almost infinite and its breadth near universal. Telling stories is why individuals can lead delusional lives; it's why societies can rise and crumble and it's why the 5 billion people on the planet can believe in opposing things with equal conviction. Once we have matched our lives, the events and facts to a specific narrative things "make sense."
I think a good place to start questioning in life is with things that seem to make too much sense; places where the story is too good, too tight, too easily believed. Keep in mind that almost everything in history that has been believed has also been doubted and there is no reason to believe that our time is any different.