Opus 2023-001: Candyland to the Closet

Life is not a game.  New Years Day reminds us of that.  It does it by the number of people who talk about New Year’s resolutions and setting new goals.  It does it by coming once a year.

One of the criticisms of modern video games was that you lose your ten lives, hit a button and start over again.  That is not how life works.  Another feature that many are not aware of are “cheat codes”.  These enabled you to go into the game’s guts and change anything you wanted.  My son liked to build a board on which he started with a geography that made it impossible for him to lose.  That is not how life works.

Life does give chances to start fresh but not to change the past.  When we resolve to stop eating Twinkies on January 1, we can genuinely start a new life of no Twinkies.  It does not do away with the spare tire you have equired in the last 30 years of eating Twinkies but it makes it possible to begin to dig out.

Often the baggage is still there.  What gives hope is the chance to begin unpacking the suitcases and doing the laundry from the trip.

Life is not a game.  The other side of that is that a game is not life.  In the game world you can always put it away and get back to reality.  In life you only have one go-round.

Today might be a good day to move from Candyland to Legos.  It is going to be an interesting year.  I hope to see you at the other end.

homo unius libri