My grandmother was a wonderful person. She taught me how to play

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My grandmother was a wonderful person. She taught me how to play the game 'Monopoly'. She understood that the name of the game was to acquire. She would accumulate everything she could, and eventually she became the master of the board.

And eventually, every time, she would take my last dollar and I would quit in utter defeat. And then she would always say the same thing to me. She'd look at me and she'd say:

"One day, you'll learn to play the game".

That summer I'd play with the neighbors every day, all day long we'd play Monopoly. And that summer I learned to play the game. I understood that the only way to win was to make a total commitment to acquisition. I came to understand that money and possessions - that's the way that you keep score. And by the end of that summer, I was more ruthless than my grandmother. I was ready to bend the rules if I had to in order to win that game.

And I sat down to play with her that fall. I took everything she had. I destroyed her financially, I watched her give her last dollar and quit in utter defeat. And she had one more thing to teach me. Then she said:

"Now it all goes back in the box. All those houses and hotels. All the railroads and utility companies. All that property, and all that wonderful money. Now it all goes back in the box".

I didn't want it to go back in the box.

"No", She said.

"None of it was really yours. You'll get all heated up about it for a while, but it was around before you sat down at the board and it will be here after you're gone. Players come and players go, but it all goes back in the box".

You have to ask yourself, when you have stored up and hoarded possessions and climbed the ladder of "success" to the highest rung you can possibly climb it... And the thrill wears off... And it WILL wear off...

Then what?

How far do you have to walk down that road before you see where it leads? Surely you understand it'll never be enough. So you have to ask yourself the question:

What matters?