Burning Beneath

The other day, I was playing a game on my Xbox—Coral Reef. It’s one of those island-life games where you farm, mine, dive, and accumulate wealth to buy a house, upgrade furniture, and build a life. At first, it was engaging, the grind felt rewarding. But then, something strange happened.

I amassed so much in-game money that I had bought everything. Every upgrade, every item, every luxury the game had to offer. And then—boredom. There was nothing left to chase, no next step, no reason to keep going.

And that made me think.

Isn’t this the same trap so many people fall into in real life? We chase wealth, believing that once we have enough, we’ll be happy. But what happens when we reach that point and realize… it wasn’t the answer?

We’ve seen it time and time again—wealthy celebrities, people who seemingly have it all, yet fall into despair, depression, even self-destruction. If money was truly the key to happiness, they would be the happiest among us. But they aren’t.

Because the power of money stops at some point. It buys comfort, security, and experiences, but it does not buy meaning.

Humans are wired to seek, to strive, to desire something beyond material gain. And maybe the answer isn’t out there—not in wealth, not in possessions—but somewhere within us.