Sundays with Raji – #8
Life – A pack of games:
While education gives knowledge, sports show character. You ought to have both to play in a ground called life. When one exists without another, you are incomplete. What’s the purpose of a game when you play it? Most of us aim to take a compelling choice of winning the game but we fail to recognize the essential part of it – to have fun in the due course of the game. Learning with fun, to evolve, grow and enjoy at the same time – Doesn’t it sound interesting? Winning and losing is part and parcel of any game. But all that matters is how you take it as a player. Be it any choice, there’s always a considerable amount of give-ins and take-a ways. Whom do we call as a good sport? Is it the one who always wins? No! It’s the one who is not overly attached to the outcomes; the one who can win but if happens to face a loss, embraces it with a great smile; the one who does not whine about the loss but having learned the lessons, getting ready to face the next.
If life is composed of games, how good a player are you, in your spiritual game? financial game? personal game? professional game? social game? It’s very common that when we constantly lose in a particular game, we give up. But we fail to realize that we failed in the game only because we did not understand certain aspects of it. We call a certain period in our life as testing time because of unexpected happenings and results. Why do we have something called tests in education? Why do we have something called test matches in cricket? These are similar to testing times in life – how long one can withstand the futuristic possibilities of happenings, circumstances, opportunities? Testing times are not times of punishment, they are times of rewards and recognition for you to move to a level higher. The rules of a game becomes more demanding and challenging as you climb up levels. You will pass a test only if you had understood on what it is and how to face it. When you fail in a test, you are not allowed to go to the next class/grade/level. Unless you pass the beginner level in an online game or a video game, you cannot play the next level – Why? When you are unable to withstand at this level, its unfair to take you to a next higher level and expect more out of you.
When you try to cross hurdles, get over struggles, you go to someone who can guide you, direct you on how to perceive and go ahead. Only who has mastery over that level can guide you well, becomes the coach.
Unless you become an active participant in a game, how will you ever master the game? An invisible umpire is watching this game, seeing every move, making judgements, revealing consequences – I hope you know who I am talking about.
Are you a good sport or ready to become one? Life is what you make of it – a school, a battlefield or a playground!
