Short Story: The ungrateful Chess Player who punished himself in the end

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When Dunstan Holderman, was a boy of only around 4 years of age, his Uncle took him under his wing, and taught him how to play chess. The boy loved the game, and soon he grew in his ability to play, so that when he had reached ten years of age, he was already beating his Uncle, in every game that they played. He needed stronger opponents. His Uncle took him along to the best chess club, in his state, in the city, and joined him up there. Within a few short years, this talented lad, was the club champion there, at the young age, of only 15 years old. He still lived with his parents, of course, and when his Uncle used to visit his parents, and ask him for a friendly game, the boy always said no, that he had to do his school homework, and could not play now. He had developed an attitude, and he thought it a waste of time to play such a patzer (a poor player at chess) as his Uncle was at chess. Sometimes, it is the poor player who is the best teacher though, as his Uncle had been here, and he had been a kindly, patient one, too. His Uncle was disappointed by the lad's dismissal of his friendly request, rather rudely, and caustically too, in its way that it was spoken. It was his Uncle who had bought him his chess set, and a number of chess books too, on playing the game. He was also paying for the lad's membership fees at the chess club. The Uncle was now pushed out of the picture, and it was not until this old Uncle was found dead in his flat, by his brother, when he had gone to visit him, that this youngster realised that he had been selfish, by his not given of his time to his mentoring old Uncle. He regretted his brusqueness towards his Uncle, for the rest of his life, and he never played another game of chess either. He was now only 16. We can punish ourselves in many ways, and the lad punished himself by not playing the game he knew so well, because of his treatment of his Uncle. We need to learn right-living from love, not brutal living without love, following the desires of our mind, rather than living past these desires, by embracing the love for others, and giving of our time, not of our disdain to them too. We need to remain humble, not become arrogantly contemptuous, instead. Photo Credit: The photo used in this article was sourced from the free media site, pixabay.com "Time spent with anyone is never wasted, even a cat knows this. Everyone is valuable, and everyone can teach us something too."