7.15.2005
This Game is Like Life
Via mahrabu.blogspot.com. It's a fairly simple game, the object of which is to move the dots around so that none of the lines cross.
This is why it's like life:
Once you get the hang of the rules, it seems fairly simple. This dot goes there, that dot goes here, voila! It all works out. I don't know if that's how life actually started out, or if it only seems that way in retrospect. I mean, weren't things fairly simple when I was about five? Maybe I didn't think so at the time. If anyone remembers what I thought when I was five, please let me know. I didn't start writing down my thoughts until I was eight or nine, so those early years are lost to me. This stage of life--the not-entirely-organized-but-simple-to-fix stage--correlates to levels 1-3 in the game.
After that, it seems to get more complicated. It almost seems impossible to solve level 4 at first. It takes a lot of work and staring at it, letting go and coming back, trying to make it look 3-dimensional, etc. It's kind of a work in progress. Then you figure it out and everything's okay. For now.
Then you get to level 5 or level 6 and it seems much more complicated. But it's also a much prettier shape at those levels. It's more intricate and delicate-looking.
The lesson I derive: the further you go in life, the more complicated it gets, and, in some ways, the prettier it looks. Not that my life is necessarily so gorgeous these days, because, really, it's not, but I think, deep down (or at least I hope), that the more complicated it gets, the more potential there is for beauty. Because if it's not that way, then, damn, I'm in trouble.
The other thing that I note about this game is that I find it somewhat enjoyable to play and addictive, although I can't understand why. I think it's because my brain is occupied, so often, with speech and words that it feels good to use part of my brain that deals with shapes, rather than words. It's like when I took one quantitative class in college, or when I started doing crossword puzzles. Using your brain in not-the-usual-way feels very good to me, like a good stretch after a workout. Aaaaah....
Two blog posts in seventeen minutes. What do you think of that?
This is why it's like life:
Once you get the hang of the rules, it seems fairly simple. This dot goes there, that dot goes here, voila! It all works out. I don't know if that's how life actually started out, or if it only seems that way in retrospect. I mean, weren't things fairly simple when I was about five? Maybe I didn't think so at the time. If anyone remembers what I thought when I was five, please let me know. I didn't start writing down my thoughts until I was eight or nine, so those early years are lost to me. This stage of life--the not-entirely-organized-but-simple-to-fix stage--correlates to levels 1-3 in the game.
After that, it seems to get more complicated. It almost seems impossible to solve level 4 at first. It takes a lot of work and staring at it, letting go and coming back, trying to make it look 3-dimensional, etc. It's kind of a work in progress. Then you figure it out and everything's okay. For now.
Then you get to level 5 or level 6 and it seems much more complicated. But it's also a much prettier shape at those levels. It's more intricate and delicate-looking.
The lesson I derive: the further you go in life, the more complicated it gets, and, in some ways, the prettier it looks. Not that my life is necessarily so gorgeous these days, because, really, it's not, but I think, deep down (or at least I hope), that the more complicated it gets, the more potential there is for beauty. Because if it's not that way, then, damn, I'm in trouble.
The other thing that I note about this game is that I find it somewhat enjoyable to play and addictive, although I can't understand why. I think it's because my brain is occupied, so often, with speech and words that it feels good to use part of my brain that deals with shapes, rather than words. It's like when I took one quantitative class in college, or when I started doing crossword puzzles. Using your brain in not-the-usual-way feels very good to me, like a good stretch after a workout. Aaaaah....
Two blog posts in seventeen minutes. What do you think of that?
Labels: life
# posted by Abacaxi Mamao : 7/15/2005 04:30:00 PM
Comments:
<< Home
I got to level 10 and then immediately closed the window because I couldn't take it anymore. The higher levels would be more manageable if there was more space on the "gameboard" relative to the size and number of dots.
You said, "I mean, weren't things fairly simple when I was about five? Maybe I didn't think so at the time. If anyone remembers what I thought when I was five, please let me know."
I don't remember what you thought when you were five, but I recently came across a letter I wrote (to Ida Nudel) describing something you said when you were four and a half. I had completely forgotten about this. You asked me, "When you do something bad, is it because Hashem makes you do it?" When I answered "No," you asked "How can that be, if Hashem makes everything happen?"
If that's what you were thinking about when you were four and a half, I'm not sure things WERE so simple when you were five.
Post a Comment
I don't remember what you thought when you were five, but I recently came across a letter I wrote (to Ida Nudel) describing something you said when you were four and a half. I had completely forgotten about this. You asked me, "When you do something bad, is it because Hashem makes you do it?" When I answered "No," you asked "How can that be, if Hashem makes everything happen?"
If that's what you were thinking about when you were four and a half, I'm not sure things WERE so simple when you were five.
# posted by 
: August 20, 2005 6:29 PM
: August 20, 2005 6:29 PM<< Home
