Checkmate by Moritz Retzch There is an old painting by Moritz Retzch called "Checkmate". In the image, a young man plays chess with the devil for his soul while an angel looks on silently. For centuries, people viewed this painting as the very essence of hopelessness. The young man has fewer pieces than the devil, and he has obviously given up because there are no moves left. One day, an actual chess player named Paul Morphy saw the painting and caught the hidden message.

Recently, I read an email from a band that was calling it quits after over twenty years of music together. They were re-releasing their final album with a new bonus song entitled "End of an Era" to solidify the finality of the moment. The lead singer's words as he explained that final song really resonated with me because they were so profound. He said, "...it is time to move on and put a period on the end of what has been a beautiful sentence and musical chapter of our liv