Daily musings #590 - Saturday, 3 September 2022
Recently I attended a global online event where we dialogued interestingly about whether life is a game.
At first blush life indeed looks like a game. It has all sorts of made-up rules - both individual, social and cultural. And we use game metaphors like winning, losing, teamwork, etc. both in our personal lives, in families, and at work.
But if one looks at it deeply, life is more of a play. An adaptive “play” where we play our part, often exhibiting different identities in varying contexts. It is certainly not one game. The rules of life are often made up. We believe that there are rules until we decide to break them, circumvent them or even manipulate them to our own advantage.
There are two parts to life. Things that we can’t change and are handed down to us. But a large part of life is our response to things that we do control, do seem to control, or do seem to have influence over. And actively adapt those responses.
A game can be played. Or one can just play. Ignoring the rules of the game. Ignoring the game itself. And we do act. Knowingly and unknowingly. In a variety of ways. So I am guessing that we are not playing a game. We are just play-acting “life”.
What do you think?