Some stories don’t simply entertain us—they reveal us.
Shirley Jackson’s The Lottery is one of those stories.

It carries the uncomfortable reminder that:

People will cling to the familiar even when it’s harmful, and they will punish the person who dares to question it.

Most of us know this intimately.

We grew up in systems where:

This newsletter is about what happens when you stop playing by unspoken rules, when you stop participating in suffering you never agreed to, and when you finally choose the identity God gave you, not the identity your environment demanded.

Original story link:
https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/1948/06/26/the-lottery

A small, peaceful village gathers every year for a “lottery.”
Children play. Neighbors chat. The scene feels warm and familiar.

Then the twist comes:
The “winner” is stoned to death by the community—including their own family.

No one knows when the ritual started.
No one knows its purpose.
Yet everyone participates because:

“There’s always been a lottery.”

Jackson’s warning is simple:
Traditions become dangerous when people stop asking why the tradition exists.

The villagers in The Lottery aren’t evil—they’re conditioned.

Conditioned to:

Their morality is shaped by their environment, not by conscience.

This mirrors the reality of dysfunctional families and communities today:

We learn roles instead of boundaries, silence instead of voice, endurance instead of healing.

We inherit:

Many of us were Tessie before we even had the language for it.

The awakening begins the moment you whisper, “Maybe this isn’t right.”

The Lottery is more than a story—it’s a mirror.

Old, splintered, falling apart.
Yet they refuse to replace it.

Symbol:
The traditions we keep even when they’re hurting us.

The simplest form of violence.
Accessible to everyone.

Symbol:
People will use whatever is available—words, gossip, silence, rejection—to uphold harmful cycles.

Before they understand the ritual, they participate.

Symbol:
Generational trauma begins with training, not choice.

“It isn’t fair.”

Symbol:
The moment someone wakes up and refuses to comply anymore.

Jackson wrote the story in 1948 to show how easily entire societies follow cruelty disguised as tradition—war, prejudice, scapegoating, blind patriotism, and social punishment.

Today, it reflects:

Trauma researchers describe family systems as closed ecosystems.

Common roles include:

You didn’t choose the role—you adapted to survive.

In The Lottery, anyone who speaks up risks becoming the next target.

This mirrors real life:

People learn to keep the peace, shrink themselves, or stay agreeable so they don’t get punished, shamed, or abandoned.

The scapegoat carries the weight for the system’s dysfunction.

Even though it’s actually freedom.

Your body shakes.
Your heart races.
Your mind questions everything.

But this is the internal resistance that appears every time you step into the truth of who you actually are.

Not because your growth is wrong,
but because it reveals their stagnation.

Change disrupts the illusion of stability.

“Dramatic.”
“Crazy.”
“Difficult.”
“Ungrateful.”

But really, you're finally honest.

Your clarity becomes uncomfortable for people committed to denial.

Just like the villagers, they cling harder to the ritual.

This is why your boundaries, distance, or silence get misread.
You’re not the problem—
you’re the catalyst.

When two people come together after surviving dysfunctional systems, love takes on a different shape.

You both may:

This isn’t failure.
This is survival logic trying to learn how to breathe.

Healing together requires:

It’s the difference between repeating the lottery and burning the black box for good.

Scripture repeatedly warns about:

God never asked you to:

Your awakening is not rebellion.
It is deliverance.

Your clarity is not conflict.
It is calling.

Your boundaries are not disrespect.
They are alignment.

Romans 12:2
“Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind.”

Psalm 32:8
“I will instruct you and teach you in the way you should go.”

Isaiah 43:18–19
“Forget the former things; do not dwell on the past. See, I am doing a new thing.”

The next time guilt rises when you set a boundary, ask:

“Is this guilt, or is this conditioning?”

Most guilt is simply the nervous system rejecting unfamiliar freedom.

Try this exercise:
Write down:

This reframes your identity from inherited to intentional.

This week, stop participating in one pattern that keeps you small.

Choose one:

Tiny shifts break ancient traditions.

Where have you been living by an inherited rule that no longer reflects who you are?

And what will your life become when you finally put the stones down?

In solidarity,

Lyndsay LaBrier
The Merchant Ship Collective

American Psychological Association. (2023). Stress in America: The State of Our Nation. APA.
Harvard Center on the Developing Child. (2021). Adverse experiences and healthy development.
Jackson, S. (1948). The lottery. The New Yorker. https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/1948/06/26/the-lottery
National Child Traumatic Stress Network. (2022). Understanding developmental trauma.
van der Kolk, B. (2014). The body keeps the score. Viking.

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