SCOTT LUDWIG: Deciding how much is enough?

When I was a boy, shooting marbles was a popular after-school activity. Here’s how it worked: You and your opponent(s) put an equal number of marbles in a ring drawn in the dirt. Players would take turns shooting — flicking a larger marble with the thumb — at the marbles in the ring. Whatever marbles you hit were yours to keep.

Not to brag, but I was pretty good at it. I always came home with more marbles than when I left. Over time, the marbles added up — although, if I’m being honest, the marbles grew via geometric progression. It wasn’t long before I had accumulated more marbles than I knew what to do with.

But no matter how many marbles I had, I always wanted more.

One hundred. Five hundred. One thousand. It was never enough.

Today, I have just enough marbles left to fill a three-gallon fish bowl. I have no idea what happened to the rest of them. The marbles I kept to display in a fish bowl complement the antique/vintage pieces we have in our home. Otherwise, they would most likely be with all the other marbles I got rid of, wherever they are.

There are many people today — people like me when I was a boy — who believe they can never get enough of whatever it is they can never get enough of. He who dies with the most toys wins.

There’s even a proverb about it: “Greed keeps men forever poor; even the abundance of this world will not make them rich.”

Keep that proverb in mind as you read the following story. It’s about money and highlights, something we don’t think about often enough. It’s told by Vanguard founder John Bogle.

At a party given by a billionaire on Shelter Island, Kurt Vonnegut informs his pal Joseph Heller that their host, a hedge fund manager, had made more money in a single day than Heller had earned from his wildly popular novel “Catch-22” over its whole history.

Heller responds, “Yes, but I have something he will never have … enough.”

Enough. I was stunned by the simple eloquence of that word — stunned for two reasons. First, because I have been given so much in my own life and, second, because Joseph Heller couldn’t have been more accurate.

For a critical element of our society, including many of the wealthiest and most powerful among us, there seems to be no limit today on what enough entails.

During this holiday season, it’s something to think about as you decide what to give others as a Christmas gift. It doesn’t always have to be something tangible. Rather, it could very well be something intangible.

For example, you could:

· Accompany someone on one of their favorite activities. Hiking or camping, for example.

· Teach someone to do something you’re really good at, such as photography, pottery, or playing a musical instrument.

· Set up a regular schedule to do something with someone that you will both enjoy — and then stick to it.

· Establish a group consisting of people who share the same interests — like reading, writing or cooking.

Those are just a few ideas to get you started. I’m sure others will come to mind as you think about the various people — and their various interests or needs — on your holiday shopping list.

Just remember the words of Walt Whitman, who said: “I have learned that to be with those I like is enough.”

And remember the words of Emily Dickinson as well, who took it one step further: “Find ecstasy in life; the mere sense of living is joy enough.”

What they’re both trying to say is that it doesn’t always have to cost anything to have — or give — the best things in life. The best things in life don’t necessarily have to be things that are tangible. In other words: Nothing will make you happy until nothing can make you happy.

The best gifts aren’t always those you can hold in your hands. Rather, the best gifts are often those you can hold in your heart.