Previous Challenge Entry (Level 4 – Masters)
Topic: INDEFATIGABLE (02/11/16)
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TITLE: The Do-Gooder's Dilemma | Previous Challenge Entry
By Judith Gayle Smith-Owens Vitouswykegardinerclark
02/18/16 -
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I break into sweat, working tirelessly, feverishly to possess a number of luxury hotels in prime money-making locations. Granted, I am not as famously wealthy as a certain major political aspirant, nor do I live in plush comforts beyond the beleaguered paycheck-to-paycheck angst keeping plain folk in food on their tables and water-tight roofs over their unfortunate heads.
I am humbly opinionated - graciously, of course - and stubborn beyond description. Once I get my mulish head down and start cleverly plotting my grandiose indefensible strategies, you cannot pry my grasping claws from the excitement of the - well, for lack of a better word - the game.
It was easier at the beginning - acquiring prime properties at dirt-cheap prices with no one criticizing my motives. Competition is bellicosely fierce, and many times I have gnashed my yellowing teeth over missed opportunities. Sometimes my dithered focus is obliquely off, and rather than bid on what I really want, I prematurely fold - and live my unforgivable errors in insufferably uncontrollable grief.
I really do try to magnanimously help others. I strew excess funds to the struggling masses who drink my offerings like thirsty desert wanderers. I stop building my hotels - my magnificent well-earned edifices, to enable the lesser moguls to remain timidly functioning in this recessive market.
I sometime dabble in utilities - there is constant income to be had there. I even branch out to exciting new developments, giddily investing in railroads. Satisfying ventures indeed, and quite a source of funds payable to suit a giver like me.
I spend hours, nay days building house after house to improve my properties. I confess to getting greedy at times, desperately reaching for more and more, but I work so hard for the gratifying rewards. I am a rather imperfect philanthropist, after all.
Remorse grips and smothers me when I see my competitors getting far too close to filing bankruptcy because of my intensely powerful machinations. I have to screech the brakes to let the once fat - now lean cats have their pitiful opportunities. Sometimes they accept my sympathetically proffered donations, and other times they actually snub and reject my ultra-generous offers. Unbelievable.
Acquiring real estate is a gritty game of chance. You toss the dice and somehow the entire system just drags. Property values collapse, and I agonize over the bitter outcome - failure is not an option. The flow of money is sluggish. I appreciate a fast market, a constantly moving scenario. Sometimes entire communities are up in arms, tossing unhappy player after player in jail. And this after eagerly sponsoring our efforts, encouraging our spending. What does it hope to accomplish? As a result, we gamely plod on, taking risks and praying for success.
I cannot and will not let this world game overwhelm me. Playing this game over and over, ignoring food and sleep and household needs - my neglected family shakes their dispirited heads in woebegone disgust as my flying fingers insist on prodding every last dollar from the penny-grasping bank to frantically help the other players suffering from my soulless lack of empathy.
So I fling back my tangled greying hair, hover more slowly, assiduously making my decisions, slog through a few more regrettable and forgettable plays - and shut the computer down for the night.
I must search for more Godly pursuits to occupy my time and energies. No longer will this game monopolize me beyond all else.
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Loved this entry - very clever.