As soon as we’re born, we’re pushed and pulled by countless conditions, originating from biology, society, and circumstance. For much of my life, I viewed this in a resentful light, as a series of obligations I never asked for. Then, after I railed against the world for several decades, I began to play with the idea that maybe I HAD asked for this, through some nameless piece of myself that defied quantification. So I began to view my life as an immersive game, one that eventually had to end.
Maybe I asked for this, maybe I didn’t. All I know is it’s way more fun when I frame it as a game, than a bunch of mandatory busy work or duties or obligations, shored up by various forms of negative reinforcement.
Heeeey, I do that too! Life is just a lot more fun when you think of it as a video game. I’m not working a 9-5, I’m grinding for loot. I’m not vacuuming my apartment, I’m raising my Cleanliness meter. And it lets you be a lot more philosophical about the briefness of it all. After all, if you never quite playing, you never get to write in your high score.
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What a great attitude to have, Kent. It’s always more fascinating and fun making something such as the drudgery of living into a game. I’m not altogether thrilled about the end, but I suppose that if you do believe in God then your afterlife is set too
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Yes, I love this! I’m with you. My game can be serious! 🧐 focused but from another view, also absurd and hysterical at times.
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Haha. It’s surely better to engage with the world as it is, than to moan about what we believe it isn’t (but “should be”). Those ‘obligations’ are often just the result of the fact that we don’t own the world; we merely live there (with others). And yet we’re apt to throw a tantrum, on the basis that we surely ‘should’ own it. Really? Maybe we didn’t “ask for it” but we can surely accommodate ourselves to it. As you do now. Is it a game? A test? A training ground for something else? Who knows, but either is as good a paradigm as any other, unless we decide we ought to find out. (And then…?)
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Absolutely!
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That’s cool because you are in control in a game to some degree and can make things happen, good things!
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life is really whatever you make of it.
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Such an encouraging thought to share. I agree that a day’s journey moves forward with each positive opportunity. And I don’t even need to keep score.
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[…] enjoy his Musings page where he drops his existential thoughts every so often (coz that’s how he rolls!), you […]
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Thanks for the share!!
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