The Game of Life

Last night as I tried to fall asleep all I kept thinking about was how life itself is really just a game. (These thoughts were most likely brought on by the fact I read The Hunger Games yesterday). But really, we are all just pieces in a game. If you play your cards right, take the correct steps, strategize, you can succeed in the materialistic sense. If you have the right cards in your hand, you’re even more likely to get where you want to go. So you work and work (aka play the game) until you reach the finish line. Hopefully by this point you have achieved what you wanted in the game. You have ‘won’ in a sense. You have a house, car, job, the means to purchase the food you need to live. The game would not be complicated if that’s all there was to it. Play your cards, spin on your turn, don’t cheat, and hope things fall into place.

Yet, who likes playing a game all by themself?  Solitaire aside, it is your opponents that make things interesting. You have the perfect word to play in Scrabble that would get you a million points, but you have to rely on the other players to play the right letters. The ability to make the right moves and, ultimately, win the game is dependent on those you play with. It is impossible to know the true motives of the people around you. And it is not just their strategy and the moves they make that effect your ending. It is the relationships, the alliances you make with those around you that help you to succeed. The advice given and received on how best to play your cards. Sometimes these allies (aka friends and family) skew your view of the game. You are not just playing to win yourself, but to also move them to victory also. Happy endings don’t just spring forth from a materialistic win. It’s the people who are your fellow opponents and allies that are the game changers. Life is about trying to integrate a materialistic and a personal win. That’s what makes it all challenging. 2+2 does not always equal 4 in a world when each move affects everyone around you, including yourself. That’s why there’s no rulebook to the game we’re playing. There is no right or wrong.

We look down on the people who simplify their game by only looking out for their personal needs. They are self-centered, selfish. However, they’ve figured out a strategy. When you connect yourself to those around you, things get complicated. Why do we not follow their lead and simplify our life too? Because we need companionship. We need people to support us and to make us laugh. It would be a long, lonely life without the players we associate with. What defines us as a winner anyway? The definition is different for all of us. (Back to why there is no rulebook…there is no real winner). Have we won at life because we have a job and a house and are surviving? Or have we won if we are barely scraping by yet have the love of a family? Maybe we have won if we have both the material world and love? Maybe we win if we make it to the finish line? Well considering the only finish line in this game is death…I guess we’re all winners. I guess the difference comes in the size of the trophy we receive at death. Will we leave a legacy behind, people to remember us? Or will we just leave an old, empty house full of things to be auctioned off at some estate sell?

And this standpoint does not even begin to factor in religion or any kind of spiritual belief. Hope is another thing that helps move people along. Maybe hope is synonymous to knowing that if one roll of the die is bad, well, at least we’ll get another turn. We can do better next time. We have no way of knowing if what we’re doing is going to lead to a good ending. Yet we keep playing. We align ourselves with people who think similar to the way we do, who enjoy doing the same activities, who have a similar strategy to this game. We play along to please the people we interact with. We smile and wave to people we know, we greet those we don’t. We keep up an appearance that leads to companionship while advancing ourselves materialistically as well. We strive to enjoy our time here on the playing field. We will continue to make up our own rulebook to the most difficult game of all As the Clock Ticks…