We All Play the Long Game
Only some of us remember
“To play the Long Game” means putting off immediate gratification in preference to a long-term benefit. It’s an exercise in patience. Focusing only on the present, leaving results for an unspecified time in the future. Willingness to spend the present in relative obscurity, secure in the knowledge that properly laid plans will come to fulfillment in their proper time.
The Long Game is also something completely alien to the competitive marketplace mentality of the 21st century.
The Marketplace Mentality thinks:
“Gotta make your killing now. Time waits for no man. Anticipate trends — or better yet, control them — and make hay while the sun shines. Keep it simple, salesman. Figures don’t lie but liars can figure. Acquire your fortune while you can, because nobody is going to help you, and everybody is going to try to take it away from you. Tomorrow will be too late. You’ll be old, and then you’ll be dead. And you’ll be dead for a long time. It’s the final reality.”
The Long Game Mentality thinks:
“Nobody needs to be killed. You have nothing but time. It’s fine to make a living, but real rewards accumulate with the learning of lessons and the hard-won development of wisdom and skills. A lot of people will help you, and you will enjoy helping them. When you get old, you’ll be recycled, and will become young again. No one really dies. You won’t be dead for any length of time! Apart from the physical plane, death does not exist.”
In this current lifetime I’ve experienced both approaches to existence. The first generated a lot of stress and loneliness, while the second bestowed kindness, mutual enjoyment and fellowship. We each make our choices, and I have chosen the best match for me.
