Playing With Certainty in an Uncertain World

Sometimes it means letting go of what’s important for the sake of what is essential.

Photo by La-Rel Easter on Unsplash

I remember as a child, how much I enjoyed playing games with clear rules.

Games like dodgeball, chess, and even tag seemed to have plainly understood guidelines for how everyone plays together.

As I’ve grown up, I’ve realized how little the structure and contained experiences of childhood games represent real life.

In the game of Adulting, the stakes are often bigger than we can anticipate, the variables or even who we’re playing with are unclear, and how both “winning” and “losing” seem to come with risk and consequence.

It seems especially challenging in our modern age where there is seemingly always someone unhappy, upset, or unsatisfied with what we did, how we said it, or what we stand, or don’t stand, for.

Worse is how often the guidelines, metrics, and rules we’re asked to play within are confusing, seem to conflict with each other, or are even completely ignored by other players.