Gambling with Monotony | Previous Challenge Entry

how it works

TITLE: Gambling with Monotony | Previous Challenge Entry
By LINDA GERMAIN
01/19/23
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We rolled the dice and were off with great anticipation. Each time was the same but then again, different. The unknown factor seemed to be a mixture of skill and landing in the right place at the right time. Success relied on acute business sense and a thrill inherent in beating out the competition. As in real life, hope sprung
eternal in believing the perfect combination was just around the next corner.

Some of us hopped with a shoe or clomped around under a top hat. My friend quietly wheelbarrowed her way round and round with the rest of us while her brothers fought for rights to the racecar. The battleship was Dad’s--no debate. Perhaps it gave him an air of authority. After it disappeared, he had no interest in the game anymore. Mom always ended up with the little iron, just like in real life.

In retrospect, this seemingly innocent amusement was a great teaching tool, except for the part about all of us starting with the same amount of money. We circled ad nauseam passing GO and collecting another dollop to get us through and build up a nest egg to buy property. We had no plans to retire in a little green house but rather to catch squatters and renters so we could fill our treasure chests with increasingly more.

Parallels to life, in general, sent some of us whirling off into bankruptcy or ending up in the hoosegow while a few built homes and hotels and drained the others dry. Supposedly, wiping out our neighbors made the last one standing, leaping, rolling, or scooting the winner.

We learned that taking chances has a consequence of losing or gaining it all. Taxes had to be paid, and utilities insisted on a part. Hospital visits, weddings, and other life milestones were only a card away and just as surprising as what people encounter in daily activities.

With all that analogy to human endeavor and lessons in a vaguely common understanding jerking us willy-nilly from birth to death, there was a major component missing. We remember the bank, hotels, houses, railroads, taxes, and sudden changes in our fortunes, but did anyone ever see cathedrals, churches, or other places of worship?

Maybe reference to the truth of Divine guidance was not as popular as jumping into unsecured possibilities with no parachute and simply hoping for a good landing.

Even now, life's reality mirror can be much like what we see in a carnival funhouse. Sometimes, we laugh at the distortion. Sometimes, it just isn’t funny.

_____

For over a hundred years, some form of this board game has been played in as many countries and with as many versions. In 1903, Lizzie Magie developed The Landlord’s Game, which was bought and renamed Monopoly by Parker Brothers in 1935, and eventually sold to Hasbro in 1991.

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