The game

It is trite to say that life's a game. And yet I believe there is a great deal in that. There are, I'm sure, many ways to think of life- as a precursor to another existence, or perhaps one long linear shot that propagates a race, or perhaps absorbs and preserves an identity. Aside from the value changers, the transformational people that we all look to in wonder -who knows what each of them held in their hearts as they went about their existence?- for the rest of us, I think there is something to thinking of life as a game that holds many other games. These games are collections of rules that one grapples with, and succeeds or fails against. The games are not merely of inanimate circumstance, physical challenges, mental challenges- they are also the challenges we set against each other. And so rather than attempt to understand our interpersonal challenges as long linear progressions in a road towards old age, we think of circular activities, games that overlap on each other as our clocks tick away. Winning in one game may have no relation to winning in another unrelated simultaneous game. But what if one doesn't want to play? What if one steps out? Is that another way of winning against the "system", the "winners"? No it isn't. People who participate in a game assess their actions in relation to the rules that govern that game. Winning is simply meeting the internal requirement. When one steps out of a game one's actions become meaningless. The common bond is broken. Thus the actions of the hermit and the banker are meaningless to each other. In life and its many games, if one wishes for the little successes (whatever it may mean) one must play the game hard. But, there is no failure in not playing.