The Game Of Life

In a world where what we know is less than what we don’t, where confusion outways fact and where many endless pieces of string dangle beneath you, leaving you wondering, asking yourself questions and debating the odds of the outcomes of a multitude of inconclusive scenarios, we find ourselves with one common theme, what is the purpose of life?

Whilst sitting on a busy tube from Baker Street to South Kensington, a young mother hopped on board carrying her beautiful, fairly newborn child. With no signal and no charged headphones to keep me distracted for the duration of a full 10 minutes, I stared across me into the eyes of the innocent, hot dog-sized baby. For a moment I wondered how soft her skin was and how it must feel for such a small hand to grasp and wrap around your finger, what thoughts occupy her mind, did she even have any thoughts at all, would she remember me and does she know anything that is about to come her way as she entered the ultimate game of life.

Is having a baby essentially an involuntarily entering a chip into the game of poker and once you're born is that the start of the timer to a never-ending game amongst 7 billion already established pieces? Does she know that she is about to gamble her houses in an unfair monopoly of a world and does she realize that the obstacles ahead of her will without a doubt knock her back at least 4 spaces at a time?

Maybe life is no more complicated than a traditional game of Rummy. But the thing about life, and this game we play day in and day out is that none of us know the rules, we don’t have a manuscript to relay the entire story so that we make the right moves to achieve a win, and in this particular game, cheaters, liars and manipulators are still amongst all invested players. Is the purpose of this game to win or to figure out the rules? Is it all back to front and are we looking at it through the eyes of the puzzle piece instead of the fully formatted puzzle?

I pondered this idea for a while until the baby began to cry and the door opened perfectly in time for my exit. I couldn’t get the image of a giant poker table out of my head and I couldn’t help but wonder if we were in fact playing a fair game or if some were simply just born with an upper hand and whether or not the cards we are dealt are simply just that or whether we have the ability to change them according to the rules. I wondered if it were possible to take winnings from others and gamble with a larger amount than you were given prematurely.

The problem was, and I would soon realize, that this game we play is not comparable to the monopoly, cards, Uno, 30 seconds and twister we see at family game night, it is new and only partly discovered. Many players had been knocked off the board, some managed to get back up, some overtook their opponents and others simply threw in the towel and lost it all. I wondered if the game of life had anything to do with luck or whether it was all just pure strategy. Are we chanced with a do-over and is the meaning of life only found once the rules of the game are understood? Were we, in all our separate bubbles of life, just playing the exact same game?

So, if we really are playing this game how do we ultimately figure out the rules? With all these moving elements of the board filled with countless losses and gains passing us by the minute, do we simply only exchange with those who know something we don’t and vice versa? Are mutually exchanging thoughts and ideas the hidden secrets to passing go, are we just looking at it all wrong?

Sometimes in life things happen, circumstances change and we are just left questioning why. But are our knock-downs simply just lessons to reenter and defeat further than the previous time played? Are we learning enough from our wrongdoings to change our outcome and where we stand on the podium? The game exists in bubbles, in formations of twos, fours, hundreds, thousand's, millions and billions so to what extent are we willing to gamble our success?

More so, until we can determine how much we are willing to lose it would be nice to know what we would gain if we won. What is the ultimate goal, the prize, trophy praise and future acknowledgement? What is the meaning of the game?