Is life one giant game? We'd like to believe that life is much more serious than some activity we play for entertainment, but if you think about it, life is a lot more like a game than we'd probably want to admit. Look at our day to day lives. We are held in check by a certain set of rules, which at times may seem arbitrary. Or there could be situations where it seems as though there are those who are cheating and managing to gain an unfair advantage. Are the games we play just methods used to prepare us for the real thing? They teach us about following the rules. They show us how to work together towards a common goal. They also let us see other strategies that we may have not thought of before, which forces us to adapt if we want to succeed.
I love all kinds of games. Video games, board games, even mind games are all endless fascinating to me. For as long as I can remember I've been the kind of person who is more concerned with having fun when it comes to a game rather than winning. Some people just can't wrap their head around that idea. If they're going to do something, then they have to be the best at it. They have to win, otherwise what's the point of playing? I suppose I can sort of understand it, but it's just never been something I've concerned myself with too much. If you don't have fun playing then doesn't that defeat the purpose of the game?
Of course I have a feeling that the people who must win at even a simple game also think of life as an elaborate game where they are keeping score against everyone else. While I think it's true that we're all playing the game of life, it becomes fairly obvious very quickly that we're all not playing the same exact version. Take the person next to you and try to compare yourself to them. On the surface you may see things that you can easily compare. How much money they make. How big is their house. How good they look. For some people that is the only criteria needed to believe their "score" is higher than someone else. So for their set of game rules they are the winner or at least winning. The thing is that it's next to impossible to truly compare yourself to someone else in all the ways that matter because different things matter to different people. The nuances of life tend to be so complex that it's hard to do a straight comparison of two lives. Even if we know that in our heads, it's still hard to not compare ourselves to those around us. At the very least we want to confirm that what we're doing is somewhat on track. Otherwise we look back and find out that we've been playing Candyland while everyone else has been playing Chess.
For all my love of games, I don't actually like playing games when it comes to life. Some people enjoy going through life with a strategy where it's them versus everyone else. They treat the world around them as the board and everyone is some form of opponent. You've probably met people like this. They're the ones who hoard their knowledge, afraid that if they share it they won't be in the lead anymore. They are constantly jockeying for power, be it in business, sex, or otherwise. If they don't always have the upper hand then they are in a fight to get it. I'm fine with competition. Without it we have a tendency to stagnate. Competition is what forces us to be better. In that way competition can be healthy for both sides. There are times though when it seems that the competition becomes more important than the end result. It's at that point when people stop caring about being better and only care about winning through any means necessary. You've probably met these people as well. They're the ones who can't open their mouths without twisting things to suit their purpose. As I've gotten older my patience with insinuations and double speak has lowered. I'm a very simple person when it comes to communication. Say what you mean. Say what you want. Be direct if you want direction. If life is a game then aren't we the only player? There will be those who help us and those who hurt us. There will be those that join our team and those who are put in our way for us to overcome. Everyone is playing their own game and we each have our own definitions of winning. The game ends the same way for everyone though. We remove our piece from the board and our score no longer matters, at least not to us because we've moved onto a different game.
