Aquí dejo una reflexión muy  interesante sacado del libro "It's all goes back in the box" de John Ortberg, un pastor cristiano evangelico de la iglesia Menlo Park Presbyterian en Menlo Park, California. 


Dicho fragmento fue utilizado como introduccion del Video-Documental "Zeitgeist Moving Forward" que esta posteado en Youtube.


Un texto que hace reflexionar la manera en como vivimos esta vida, esta es la versión en español:


"Mi abuela era una persona maravillosa. Me enseñó a jugar al juego Monopoly. Ella entendía que el nombre del juego era adquirir. Ella acumulaba todo lo que podía. Y eventualmente, se volvió la maestra de la mesa. Y eventualmente, cada vez que podía ella tomaba mi último dólar, y yo me rendía en una derrota total. Y luego ella me decía siempre lo mismo, me miraba y decía: “Un día, aprenderás a jugar el juego.”

Un verano, jugué Monopoly con un vecino casi todos los días, durante todo el día. Jugábamos por horas. Y ese verano, aprendí a jugar el juego. Llegué a entender que la única manera de ganar es hacer un compromiso total con la adquisición. Llegué a entender que el dinero y las posesiones son la única manera de mantener el puntaje. Y para el final de ese verano, era más despiadado que mi abuela. Estaba listo para doblar las reglas, si tenía que hacerlo, sólo para ganar ese juego. Y me senté con ella para jugar en ese otoño.

Lenta y astutamente, expuse las vulnerabilidades de mi abuela. Tomé todo lo que ella tenía, la destruí financiera y psicológicamente. La vi dándome su último dólar, en una derrota total.

Y luego tuvo una cosa más para enseñarme… dijo “Ahora todo vuelve a la caja. Todas esas casas y hoteles, todos los ferrocarriles y las compañías de servicio, toda esa propiedad y todo ese maravilloso dinero- ahora se vuelve a la caja.” Yo no quería que vuelva a la caja. “No,” dijo, “Nada de ello fue realmente tuyo. Te entusiasmaste por un rato, pero estaba aquí mucho antes de que sentaras a la mesa, y estará aquí luego de que te vayas. Los jugadores vienen y van. Pero todo vuelve a la caja. Autos y casas, títulos y ropas, graneros llenos, billeteras abultadas, incluso tu cuerpo.” Porque el hecho es que todo lo que sea que adquiero, consumo, y conservo va a volver a la caja y voy a perderlo todo. No hay manera de evitarlo.

Tienes que preguntarte: cuando finalmente obtienes todas las posesiones, cuando has realizado la compra definitiva, cuando has conseguido la casa final, cuando has acumulado seguridad financiera y has escalado la escalera del éxito a su más alto peldaño… y la emoción desaparece -y desaparecerá- ¿Y luego qué?

¿Cuán lejos tienes que ir por ese camino antes de ver a donde lleva?

Por supuesto entenderás que nunca será suficiente, entonces tienes que hacerte la pregunta... ¿Qué es lo que importa?"

John Ortberg






Aqui en Ingles:


"The text that follows is an excerpt from John Ortberg’s book “It all goes back in the box”.  At the bottom of the text is a video companion sermon also by Pastor John Ortberg, DON’T MISS IT.  Enjoy!

There is an analogy that comes from the world of games. It was used quite some time ago by a psychologist named James Dobson. I first learned it from my grandmother. My grandmother taught me how to play the game monopoly. Now, my grandmother was a wonderful person.  She raised six children. She was a widow by the time I knew her well.  She lived in our house for many, many years. And she was a lovely woman, but she was the most ruthless Monopoly player I have ever known in my life. Imagine what would have happened if Donald Trump had married Leona Helmsley and they would have had a child. Then, you have some picture of what my grandmother was like when she played Monopoly. She understood that the name of the game is to acquire. 
When we would play when I was a little kid and I got my money from the bank, I would always want to save it, hang on to it, because it was just so much fun to have money. She spent on everything she landed on. And then, when she bought it, she would mortgage it as much as she could and buy everything else she landed on. She would accumulate everything she could. And eventually, she became the master of the board. 
And every time I landed, I would have to pay her money. And eventually, every time she would take my last dollar, 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.” I hated it when she said that to me. But one summer, I played Monopoly with a neighbor kid–a friend of mine–almost every day, all day long. We’d play Monopoly for hours. 
And that summer, I learned to play the game. I came to understand the only way to win is 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, to win that game. And I sat down with her to play that fall. 
Slowly, cunningly, I exposed my grandmother’s vulnerability. Relentlessly, inexorably, I drove her off the board. The game does strange things to you. I can still remember. It happened at Marvin Gardens. I looked at my grandmother. She taught me how to play the game.  She was an old lady by now. She was a widow. She had raised my mom. She loved my mom. She loved me. I took everything she had. I destroyed her financially and psychologically. I watched her give her last dollar and quit in utter defeat. It was the greatest moment of my life.
And then 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. I wanted to leave the board out, bronze it maybe, as a memorial to my ability to play the game.  
“No,” she said, “None of it was really yours. You got all heated up about it for a while, but it was around a long time 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.”
And the game always ends. For every player, the game ends. Every day you pick up a newspaper, and you can turn to a page that describes people for whom this week the game ended. Skilled businessmen, an aging grandmother who was in a convalescent home with a brain tumor, teenage kids who think they have the whole world in front of them, and somebody drives through a stop sign. It all goes back in the box–houses and cars, titles and clothes, filled barns, bulging portfolios, even your body."

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