In July I received a phone call from a fellow that was pretty down on him self. Seemed that he felt he was a jinx to any game he played. After listening to his stories, it reminded me of an article I wrote several years ago and I said, "I've got a movie just for you." I thought the timing was worthy of a rewrite and publish the article again. I wrote about the movie The Cooler. The Cooler starring William H. Macy, Maria Bello and Academy Award Nominee, Alec Baldwin. In short, it's a Las Vegas love story. Bernie Lootz, played by Macy, is the Cooler.  
 
I especially liked this movie because it depicts real life behind the scenes of gambling. The glamour's people that deal you the games and serve you the drinks are real people with real problems. No amount of make-up, costume, glitz and pearly white smiles can take away the problems of the people serving up the game. The Cooler allows us a peek behind the casino's curtain to expose the lives of two lost souls in the City of Dreams.  
 
Bernie Lootz is a loser. Even his name says loser. He lost so much money to the Shangri-La Casino that he becomes an indentured employee to cover his marker. What's Bernie's job? Well, he's the guy that goes to a hot table and cools it off. In the movie, the early scenes frankly depict many examples of what I explain as the metaphysics of the game. It is these scenes that I recommend viewing the motion picture, along with drama for Bernie and his unexpected girlfriend. The story ending... well, you better see for yourself.  
 
Everything about Bernie exudes a losing energy from his low life loser self-esteem, to the thin walled dump he calls home, to the bartender never having cream for his coffee. It is uncanny, every time Bernie gets the call to cool a game the game breaks down like magic. The winning streak comes to an abrupt end. The winner continues to play until becoming a loser. Bernie calmly walks back to the bar to finish his coffee less the cream, and now cold. And so it goes, for Bernie, cooling off hot games at the Shangri-La Casino until his debt is paid off.  
 
I cannot say that I have ever been in a game with a deliberate cooler. However, I have been in loads of great games, craps and twenty-one, when a low energy player enters the game, imploding the energy and ending the hot streak. Of course the casino floor personal interceded to do whatever they can to break up the game, but that is a story for another time.  
 
So, how did the Cooler do his work? He was able to shift the energy. He interrupted the winning energy with his imploding energy. He had the belief that he was a loser. He owned the ability of sending the winning energy off course. That was Bernie's gift. He believed in his losing ways. He was resigned to the label of loser. If he was in a game, there was no way the players could win.  
 
Innocently enough, some players are coolers. These individuals may come into your good game, buy in, and end a good thing. How? It is like viewing a reflection in a still pool. When someone comes along and rudely splashes a large stone, the reflection is destroyed. You can see how it all falls apart in the movie. It is not their intention to wreck the game. It is just that they "splash" it. There seems to be a delicate balance to any game. All it takes is the Cooler to come a long to have it all slide away.  
 
This is why I teach, "Pick your playmates". Not everyone playing is a knowledgeable and skilled player. Not everyone playing has a positive attitude about winning. So, some players are like Bernie Lootz, they simply can't help but lose and bring down a game.  
 
It is not about a person's luck in a good or bad framework. It has to do with the energy resonating within that person. Some people have a big expansive energy and succeed in life. Others live a life of contractions and withdrawal. Failing in life is their only way. When you change your energy, you change reality. How do you change your energy? See how it works out for Bernie in The Cooler. This is the reason my choice for teaching spirituality and metaphysics happens in the classroom of a casino. When it comes to energy, emotion and life lessons, it's all happening in a casino.  
 
Without giving more away, I suggest you pick up The Cooler. Watch it once for the enjoyment and then a second time for the life lessons that it holds.  
 
Copyright (c) 2008 Michael Vernon
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