The Game of Life

Here is a lesson for all who may read this.  In the “Game of Life” that is the Parker Brothers game, the idea of the game is to make more money than anyone else and beat your opponents to the finish.  That is a board game people.   Get the clue that life is not a game.   The one with the most toys does not win.

Pardon for the rant but I seem to be in a power struggle at work and I did not start it.   I have a fellow employee in the company that feels like he is not needed in his current position and is trying to gain some form of control in the storage branch of the corporation.   Now the old me wants to say “I didn’t start this fight but I will sure end it”.  Now here is where my internal struggle hits.  My gut still wants to fight fire with a small thermal nuclear device, but I spent last fall at an adult leadership course put on by the Boy Scouts of America.  This course is called Wood Badge and is one of the most compelling classes I have ever taken.  I will not go into great detail on the overall course, but I want to tell you about one lesson. 

“The Game of Life”

Here are the rules of a simple game.  You have two paddles on red and one green. On the count of three each team lifts a paddle in the air.  That is all the rules you are given and the game starts.   After the first round the scoring board is brought out and the scores are counted.  For example the scoring board for a game with two teams would look like this.   Two red paddles are raised both teams lose 100 points.  If a red paddle and a green paddle are raised then the red paddle wins 500 points and the green paddle loses 500 points. If the two green paddles are raised then each team gets 50 points.   Now the motto of this game is “Win All You Can”.  How do you see this game going?  When I played it we had eight teams with a very complicated scoring board, but the concept stayed the same.  At first we were just throwing up paddles at a whim and going into the negatives fast.  Then a group of instructors ran across the room holding up one word signs which read Win All You Can. As soon as they passed they ran backwards so the message read Can You All Win.  Slowly two tactics emerged one group started only holding up the red paddle while the other seven groups were holding up green.  The seven groups started trying to get the eight group to join in but they were winning and they kept holding up red by the end of the game seven teams where dip in the negative and one team had thousands of points. Who won?  …. No one won.  In life there is no score board and no playing pieces and if you can’t figure out that there is always a win-win scenario, then you will be the one to bring down everyone.  I don’t want to be the one to destroy everything just to prove I am right. 

When I started this blog tonight I had all intentions of explaining my strategies of how I was going to win this battle.  Then I would probably spend some time justifying my decision.  Now here I am at the end of this post and I realize it’s time to lift the paddle.  Well Bob what’s it going to be red or green.   This will be a long weekend figuring out my next move.   I hope you will think before your next move and try to find the win-win scenario.

P.S. If I blow this game for any soon to be Wood Badgers, please forgive me.   Not only did this game hit me hard then, but again tonight.  It is a lesson we all need.

 Make good choices.  in the end it is just between you and God.