How to Enchant Your Life, part 3 - Flip the Gameboard
The Play Is the Thing
[Part 3 of a series on How to Enchant Daily Life. Go here for Part 1.]
I’ve been a resident of Colorado for nearly five years. But what is Colorado?
Even more insistent, “Who am I?”
We All Play Papa Culture’s Game
My Colorado driver’s license lets me lawfully drive to and from my Colorado job, so long as I keep to the Colorado road surface. My Colorado registration sticker tells Colorado law enforcement officials that my Colorado-plated vehicle is in good legal standing. Via Colorado taxes, I pay, garb, and arm those officials to enforce the rules of Papa’s game.
Our ancestors “discovered” the Colorado I now drive in. In order to officially call it “Colorado,” they wiped out its original inhabits, then handed the game to us.
When the Game Becomes A Battle
Papa Culture cons us into thinking we’re better than he is at his game. That gets messy.
We hate the game we love.
Our culture fosters violence and the savor of blood it leaves on our daily cut lip.
To win the game that Papa never allows to end, I cut you off so I can beat a red light. You speed up to beat the light and keep me from getting somewhere faster than you. All the while, we take as given the traffic signs that limit our speed and the street lines that direct our paths—none of which carry the solid reality of a pine tree, bear, or our very selves.
What We Settle For
We settle for the illusion that we’re detached, objective, controlling masters of Papa’s game.
We live our lives on Papa’s game board. I can’t see the road’s winding path over a dozen miles. Yet, I’m confident that, in 15 minutes, my garage will magically transform into the parking lot at my work. And after some time hearing the hum of the tires from inside a rolling compartment of metal and hydrocarbons, Presto! It is so! I’ve won this round!
Travels in Flatland
I go from there to here. But am I really here? The planet’s no longer a tremendous miracle but Papa’s chutes and ladders to direct us per his purposes. With every roll of the dice, I play the game I’ve settled for because, well, I’m a creature of Papa’s rules.
It’s time we stop settling for a game we’re much bigger than. Each of us is a scion and living talisman. Papa Culture at all costs doesn’t want us to see we’ve always been big enough to flip over the gameboard.
Games are supposed to be fun. But they’re just one way to have fun. After all, the point of a game is that we leave the game, refreshed, renewed, recreated.
More on how to really play in Part 4: Leave the Game