Dear GutsIsTheKey Reader. It is interesting how writing topics come to me. Some topics I stew on for a long time. Some are the result of great inspiration and divine leadership. Some are themes that I am interested in learning more about and decide to research and refine. Some are revolutionary sales progress thoughts, that spring forth from my career. Some are derived from stories from my active and outgoing life. Some are derived from stories from the lives of others.  But this idea was quite different. It just popped in my head, from something I don’t often think about. And the more I thought about it; the more I liked it. So, I decided that if it said something to me, then I should share it with you.

     I guess the way this writing topic came to me was by looking all around me, at how much time people (in general) spend playing games. Everywhere I look, people are playing games. With a little bit of snobbery, I started to excuse myself from this number because I never play games. I am always focused and applied to some great task…. but then again, I remember a time when I was younger that I loved video games, .. younger still that I loved pin-ball machines, ..  younger still that I loved to play a few board games, such as Yahtzee, Scrabble and most of all; Monopoly. So I decided to lighten up on my critical attitude and drifted back to remember my “gaming” experiences.

     I remember that when I was a young boy that I spent hours and hours playing Monopoly. There were times that I would have friends over to spend the night, and we would stay up all night long playing the game. As I mused about this experience from my childhood; a few life lessons that can be gleaned from some of my Monopoly Games came to me, like dreamy whispers of memory. I wrote these down and decided that these lessons would be interesting to explore further, in a BEAM. So let’s explore some of these things you can learn from a Monopoly game, together.

1. The game must be played with others. It is no fun to play alone.                                       Wow. How true this is in life. You can go it alone. But most who do, miss a great part of the fun of the game.                                                                                                                                 

2. You choose a game piece that represents you to other’s playing the game. It is like a public persona. You get to choose this image.                                                                          So often the face we present in public is little more than a game-piece. It is what we want others to see of us. I am not even saying this is bad. It just IS! But what it is, IS up to us. How do we want to be viewed by the world? We need to choose our game face carefully, to make sure it really represents us and how we want to be seen by the world.                                                                                               

3. Baltic Ave or Boardwalk; You could end up on either one. It’s all the roll of the dice.                 A dime-store philosophic novel could be written about this one. I guess my wisdom on the subject is that every day we need to remind ourself of the health of acceptance. Many things are decided for us. Who were our parents? What was the socio-economic situation into which we were born. What is the color of our skin? What are the features of our body. And On & On & On this could go. There is much decided for us….. The only healthy way to deal with this is to ACCEPT the things we can not change (Prayer of St. Francis) .. That gives us the best liberty to have the courage, to change the things that we can.

4. You only get paid as you keep on going around the board.                                                    Yes, I know there are people who inherited their money or won it through some highly unusual means. But these individuals are the exception, not the rule. The greatest % of us have to work for our money and our accomplishments. And both normally stop growing, when we do. — I am not trying to talk investment strategy. Just to herald the clear point that we should continue to grow as long as we are living. And we should live vitally, as long as we are in the game. No turn should be wasted. Who knows what gain might be gathered at the next turn of the dice; if we keep playing the game with interest and vitality.               

5. You can make a lot or lose a lot, just by where you happen to land in life.                             In the 90’s, I lost my first wife to a terrible brain accident. In the aftermath, I lost two companies and the entire financial advantage, I had worked my whole career path to earn. — Thank you Forrest Gump for the wisdom to deal with this situation: “__It happens. It does. I could not have planned it. I could not have prevented it. It just happened. It could have just as easily been that I won the lottery but instead a big of bunch of __It happened.  —– Humility is the best way to handle this stuff. Neither feel picked on by God if something bad happens or that you are mankind’s greatest gift, if something good happens. A lot of this just happens to do with where you land on the board, when you take your turn.

6. Chance can be a good thing or bad but sometimes you hope for it cause it seems the only way to change your circumstance.                                                                                             We have really good road conditions in most places in the United States; so Ruts in the road are not real prevalent. Yet, I will never forget the time that my 16 year old son called me and told me that he had driven the car in a rut. RUT! That thing was like a cavern. Only thing to do was get him out of it. And boy oh boy did it cause damage. — Unlike our good roads, Ruts are common in life. A lot of times, we just want some moment of chance to get us out of them. Yet, the problem with chance is that it can go either way. Yet, it seems that to get out of some of the ruts in life; we have to take some chances. When it is time, go ahead pick up the card. Just be willing to give the game your best, when the chance card comes up in your favor AND when it does not.                                                                

7. Nobody likes to go to jail, unless they are in worse trouble playing the game.                         I remember a few times playing the Monopoly Game that you could get in such a predicament that landing in jail seemed like a pretty good thing. Everybody else owned the board and you couldn’t afford to move, without deeper predicament. You know I have known quite a few people who go down the wrong path for similar reasons. Life and its consequences seem so harsh that anything seems better. While I do not advocate jail for anyone; there are times that you need to take a time out from the game….. I know that for me; a 30 day sabbatical changed my life for ever. It wasn’t exactly jail. Thank God. But it was enough of a time out, for me to get a completely different perspective on life. Such a break can help you gain a new outlook, when the game does not seem to be going your way.

8. If you build on what you get, it can help you get more and win the game. In the game acquiring properties and building on them helped put you in a position to profit. Wow. What a powerful lesson that relates to life can be learned from this. When we seize our opportunities, invest and build upon them; we put ourselves in a situation, where our likelihood of winning increases geometrically. Life is not Hop-Scotch. We need to make the best of what we have. Investing in what comes our way can spell that we have a healthy sense of appreciation. Having the wisdom to build on our current assets, instead of just wishing for different ones can give us the tools we need to progress to a healthier outcome. Water the seeds that God has planted in you. Build on what you get.           

9. You can profit a lot, when others visit your places; especially if you have them developed. We need the contributions of others to win in life. We are linked to the rest of the people in the game. We are playing on the same board. So it is plainly true: When we have built our own infrastructure so we are prepared when others come our way; then we are in much greater position to profit from the good that they are capable of giving us.  If I build me, then I can gain more from you. Strange concept but true.                        

10. There are costs with everywhere you go and everything you do. Ouch but true. It is well said that every opportunity has an opportunity cost. Read that again. It bears repeating. Every opportunity has an opportunity cost. Choosing to do one thing means that you choose not to do something else. Monopoly teaches this. So does life.

11. You can not stay still for very long. Sometimes you can skip a turn but this may be good or it may be bad. In Monopoly sometimes you can skip a turn. This can work out greatly in your advantage or greatly to your disadvantage. The best thing to do when you skip a turn is to use the time wisely planning your next move. 

12. Sometimes you can move extra spaces and this may be good or it may be bad. There were always obvious advantages for rolling doubles. You got to go twice and going around the board quicker got you paid faster or helped opportunities to buy properties come your way faster. Unfortunately, the converse could also be true. But most of the time, the chance to move ahead faster is a good thing. Be ready, when your time comes. 

13. A cheater can ruin the game for everybody. Don’t cheat. Don’t allow cheating. It hurts everyone. Don’t play the game with cheaters. Find better people to play the game with.   

14. Sometimes you have to give some away, so people you like can stay in the game. Often in our midnight Monopoly marathons someone would get so wiped out that you had to give them some money to keep them in the game. The message is obvious. No friends. No fun in the game. Help people out when they get stuck and need a hand.

15. You never know what to expect in the game. That was always one of the coolest things about Monopoly. It could take many unexpected twists and turns. The way to best play the game was to be prepared for anything; cause it really could happen. This is true in life. Work for the best but be prepared for the worst. None of us really know what to expect. So make up your mind; you are going to enjoy the game, NO MATTER WHAT.        

16. A good game takes a long time. Monopoly was never any fun with someone who always wanted to rush the game. Get your heart and mind right, before you start playing. A good game takes a while. There are soooo many times that we miss out on a good game in life, if all we ever want to do is rush through things. Work on patience; the game of life will improve if you do.

17. It’s only a game and the point of it is to have fun. Jesus promised us an “abundant life.” Yet I know so many of His followers who have everything but Abundance. Motive Matters. Why is really important. Make up your mind that life will be fun and it will be a self-fulfilling prophecy. Make up your mind that you are going to be miserable and no matter what good thing happens, it wont be good enough. The point of the game is to enjoy it. Put a smile on your face and contentment in your heart and make up your mind that you are going to keep them both; no matter how the game may turn out.                                                                  

18. The only thing you get to keep when you quit the game is the relationship with the person you played with.  We miss the whole point of the game when we forget to be good to the person that we play with. When the game is over; you still have the person. Hopefully your life is that way. And the games are optional but the people are not. Invest in those around you. Play the game fairly with those you are with. Yes, try to win But never forget that the people you play with are more important than any personal acquisition. God has given us this great game of life, for the purpose of teaching us to invest in relationships = First and foremost: in A relationship with Him as the guide to how to play the game and Second :  in  deepening the relationships with those, with whom we get to play the game.        

    

    Slam – aka Tim G. Carter

    About Monopoly

    • Their site informs that : “More than 275 million games have been sold worldwide and it’s available in 111 countries, in 43 languages.
    • The longest MONOPOLY game in history lasted for 70 straight days.”
    • More Monopoly information and fun facts are  available at: http://www.hasbro.com/monopoly/en_US/discover/about.cfm