We always like to dream and imagine a life where we had no expenses. A life where we could pay everything off and do whatever we like. Even if its something you don’t care to put much attention to or if you’re already comfortable, every now and again you do picture a state of living where you had more money than you can imagine and what that world would look like.
As I’ve gotten older, that image has grown larger. From just paying off my family’s debts, to adding in my dream home, then travelling to every country in the world and experiencing everything this planet has to offer, maybe starting up a business or two I thought was too risky to try!
Then I started to ask myself, if I had all the money in the world and all these things came true, then what? If you had too much money for yourself and your loved ones, then how else would you use it? There’s no use for it just sitting in a bank, so what could you contribute to the world that this opportunity of good fortune has given you?
As humans, there is something in us that draws us to helping one another. There is something in us that compels us to wanting to care for someone or something else. Granted, some people more than others but I’d like to think the vast majority stops and thinks. I haven’t quite figured out why yet but its got to be something to do with the fact that we are all connected (whether we admit it or not). Not just by species but something spiritual.
We are connected as one.
I’ve stopped giving to charity
There was a time in my life where I gave to so many different charities all at once, not knowing but hoping my small donations would make some sort of a difference (which im sure they did) but I still felt a sense of helplessness. Like no matter how many places I contributed to, there was always more and more that needed just as much attention and support. The older you get or more you look into things, the more you realise how messed up our world is and how many things need fixing. I came to a decision within myself that the list for charitable projects are endless and although i am understanding of them, I want know and see exactly how my donation is benefiting said charity. I’m not saying do not donate or that charity organisations aren’t good, most are! This is just my own personal conviction and I feel like I am not satisfied with just chucking my money somewhere and getting on with my day. I want to create some real change and see a difference. Call me a dreamer but I want to leave the world a slightly better place than the one I came into.
From all of the mixed emotions of feeling proud of my small donation adding to this one big shift. To then feeling super insignificant thinking how my tiny response could possibly make any change at all. Which brought me back to my initial thought. What if I had all the money in the world?
But I’ve had a lot of ideas… I am passionate about third world countries and their lack of water, opportunities and essential necessities. And also very convicted when it comes to sex trafficking and slavery in other parts of the world. I’m also very passionate about wildlife and the environment. There’re just so many. And who knows, if the opportunity ever presents itself, maybe I get to do them all!
Then one day in a time just after my first Covid lockdown around June 2020, when restrictions lifted and we could visit each other’s homes again, my friends and I were preparing to play our first game of Dungeons and Dragons together. If you don’t exactly know what D&D is, I will get to that. I never realised, although as unheard of as it is, the community of D&D players is worldwide and a lot more popular than I thought. I guess thats with everything though. There are so many damn humans on this planet, and when we think something has never existed until the moment we discover it, we also discover a whole underworld of communities all connected by it.
My housemate then informed me of a story about an 80 year old woman who would play D&D with her grandson and aside from the regular fantasy story and quests, she opened up a florist of some sort in the game where she would just tend to plants and garden during her time on the board. And thats when the idea sparked…
But first – What is D&D?
For all the nerds out there (including myself), its probably the most awesome thing known to anyone with an a vivid imagination or enjoys a good escape from reality. It’s not a game with competition and a winner. Its a game about adventure and exploring the world built from the collective imagination of the people you are seated with.
It’s a table top, role playing fantasy game.
There is 1 player who is the DM (Dungeon Master) who calls all the shots
The other players are heroes in the story
Before you begin, you must establish your characters
Using the Player’s Handbook, you will create your characters and fill in a character sheet
You will choose your race (human, wizard, gnome, etc), class (your job), give your character a unique look and personalty (clothing, features, maybe a weapon they always carry or a pet), and your characters call to the adventure (in other words, their purpose and/or why they are present in the game at this exact moment.)
There are 3 steps to the game of D&D – Describe, Decide & Roll
The DM describes what’s happening in the scene
The heroes decide what they want to do
Then the player rolls a 20-sided die to see if they succeeded – The higher you roll, the better.
With this information, the DM describes what happened next and then the same thing repeats for the next player to roll.
FOR EXAMPLE:
DM describes – “You enter the cave and you the golden egg you are seeking is being guarded by 10-foot silver dragon with green thorns spiked down its spine to the tip of its tail. The ash surrounding the entrance of the cave tells you, this dragon breathes fire. What do you do?“
Heroes decide – “We want to cause a distraction at the entrance of the cave, lure the dragon away from the egg while the smallest character (let’s call her Night Gale) sneaks in and steals the egg”
Player rolls – If they get 20, they have a 100% success rate and what the heroes decide, plays out. But say they roll a 10, they don’t succeed completely but they don’t completely fail either
DM continues and describes based on the roll – “the dragon is successfully lured away to the entrance of the cave but while Night Gale has snuck in to retrieve the egg, the gold from her pockets pours out making a lot of noise and the dragon notices she’s near the egg and makes a huge roar of fire causing the cave to shake and rocks elevating the egg to wobble. What do you do?“
And the next steps repeat again, the next player on the table rolls ad the adventure continues!
The DM could sculpt a short quest and end it when the players have succeeded (or not succeeded). Or a very common way to play is to pause and pick up where you left off with an ongoing campaign. Essentially the game could go on for however long you like. A day, a couple weeks, a year or in some cases literally forever. You are in complete control. Campaigns are popular because the more you play, the more you get to know your character, their world and invest in the other’s characters as well, just like when you’re watching a TV series except you and the people you are playing with control the direction of the game, but the most exciting part is you’ll never know what’s going to happen next!
The game isn’t just about midivil worlds, mythical creatures and quests. Its about a imagination, stepping out of yourself and normal life, into a make belief realm as the character you have created. And most importantly, its about having fun and going on an adventure with your friends.
Couldn’t have phrased that any dorkier if I tried!
So what does D&D have to do with all this charity and money talk?
My humanitarian project
Since I can remember, there has always been a stigma about retirement homes and how poorly the elderly get treated in them. It could be the very visual abuse that i’ve seen in movies and shows, or even the horror news stories that circle the platforms, or maybe just my mum making my sisters and I swear to never put her in somewhere as horrific as a nursing home and that she would rather end up completely alone than to be in one of those places (talk about melodramatic)! But regardless, the idea of elderly people in a boring place that most dont want to be in, miserable and around other miserable people just didn’t sit right with me. Of course I assume not every experience is like this. Its probably the vast minority that we even hear these stories about, but as happy and comfortable as it is, I can only imagine how it must be to experience waking up in the same home every single day, with the same people, doing the same things until, well i guess until the end…
Now I’m sure you’ve pieced two and two together and gathered some version of what my idea is, but in case you’ve zoned out while your eyes have been scanning the black and white while daydreaming after every other sentence – I think if I were to have own humanitarian project, I would start up a Dungeons & Dragons program for people in nursing homes.
Why?
Why not! If anyone, the elderly seem to me like the most appropriate people for a game like this. While I’m sure most of them have had their share of travel and experiences in the past, now they can’t exactly just get up and start exploring a new country or meet new and exciting creatures and people, you get the gist! But with D&D, they can. They can escape the mundane. They can socialise in a new and exciting way, be anything or someone they always wanted to be. Do things they can’t do in real life, like go on a month long journey across a lost land, crusade with the paladins, or slay a dragon, or as simple as climb a tree, whatever! D&D would give these old folks a chance to not only escape the real world and experience the world of fantasy and make belief, but for them to still use their imagination, exercise their brain power and simple just have fun. If that is their thing of course.
When we’re younger, we can travel, we can do things physically that most can’t later. We can play video games and read books to escape to the lands we wish were our own. For a lot of people in retirement homes, they don’t have these opportunities and I truely think this would completely change the experience they have for the better and the future of everyones attitude toward nursing homes. I mean, know I would like to live out my remaining days casting spells, speaking to mythical creatures and hunting for treasure if I were in that situation!
How?
I admit, I was stuck on this but my wonderful high school teaching sister gave me the brilliant idea…
Who better to run these D&D sessions than those who aren’t so distracted with life yet and need somewhere to channel their creativity, child like imagination and exploration somewhere other than a classroom and with people they see 200 days of each year! I know this is something I would have loved the opportunity to do when I was in high school. Plus this could also be a great program for kids to acquire some extra credit.
Each campaign could run for a term (about 10weeks). The first week would be an introduction to the game, explaining how it works, the world of fantasy, magic and mythical creatures. The second week could be filling out the character sheet and creating a back story for them. Then the remaining weeks could all be play. Something like that! Students could swap out term by term, so their character remains in the game for the totality of the campaign. There are thousands of nursing homes and high schools all across Australia, so the opportunity is there!
The best part is it wouldn’t even cost that much to run. All there would need to be is a players handbook, a rulebook, dice and character sheets per elder group & student. Which means more money for other charities because I have all the money in the world, remember?
But hey I’m just spit balling here! Its a nice idea and doesn’t seem so outrages to think about. Out of all the projects I’ve come up with, this seems the most idealistic and since its something on home soil, I could really see and feel the impact I crave on creating…
If you had all the money in the world, what would you do with it?