About How You Play

Post 1305:

You’ve probably heard the saying, “It’s not whether you win or lose, but how you play the game.”

Anyway, it’s a saying. Not sure I thought much of it when I was growing up. If I heard a coach saying that to me, I figured our team sucked. Prepare for the worst. Might as well go home and watch TV.

What is the point of anything if you’re going to lose? What’s the point of life?

It’s a silly sounding question, but I’m serious. It doesn’t make a whole lot of sense to be born, get kicked around, then shuffle off to the afterlife, tail between your legs.

If we’re looking at the percentages though, this is what most people do. There’s not a surplus of big winners walking around.

Most people settle for something a little or a lot less. At work. At home. It’s part of adult reality. Life isn’t a fairytale. Things happen. We’re in control of so very little.

Maybe the only thing that matters is the way you play the game. To some degree, you can control that. If my day is a game, things may or may not go my way. But my attitude and behavior are my responsibility. I can decide how to proceed, whether or not to be an asshole, etc.

And what if you win the wrong way? Unless you’re a psycho, there’s no real pleasure in that. If I want to be a writer but I settle for something more immediately lucrative, then I’m a liar. Maybe the world sees it as a win, but it’s not a win worth living with.

It’s how you play. What you play for.

Damn. That one coach was right. The one I used to make of. In my defense, he had a mullet and wore socks up to his knees for no good reason. Life lessons require more palatable messengers. Just saying.

Play on. Cheers and see you after.