Kimberly Anne Evans spent her life using food as a friend, confidant and comforter. She estimates now that she ate about 9,000 calories a day. When she was 39 years old, her weight was 347 pounds, and she knew that she was slowly killing herself with food. Then a friend loaned her a DVD of The Phantom of the Opera.” She was moved by the Phantom’s status as an outcast, craving human contact and love.

$333 million. There you go — that would solve all of your problems, right? I mean, even a million would make a dent in some of the worst of your worries. As I type this, I’m listening to the news report about the twelve-state, mega-millions lottery. People are lined up out the door and around the stores to take their one dollar chance at the illusion of happiness.

And that’s all it is — the illusion.