The Prize

"And it's not like my parents value money in a superficial way. They just want to know that I have enough to live comfortably on. Yet if given a choice between earning money and working on important things like this riddle, I'll make the higher choice. I've tried making lower choices before, and they just produce agony — what God called 'hell.' Five years ago, I embarked on a quest to reverse-engineer the universe, and I intend to see that through by slaying the dragon and claiming the prize."

"What's the prize? Money? Fame? Glory? A handsome prince?"

"Self-realization," I sighed. "I want to know what I'm capable of. I want to feel my own creative power. I want to watch the universe bend around my fingertips like liquid magic, rearranging itself to match the grandest vision I have for it. Some people call that grandiosity. I call it remembering Who I Am."

"But the other stuff would be nice too, wouldn't it?"

"I guess," I shrugged. "But it's not the point. I've still got a lot of work to do around money, actually. It's an area of my life that I haven't paid much attention to. I've been acting out a value system that places money pretty low on the totem pole, so my lack of financial success isn't that surprising. If I actually applied myself to the pursuit of money, I'd probably do just fine. I've just got some limiting beliefs swimming around in my consciousness."

"Like what?"