Short Sleeves Insights - Infinite Play, Anyone?
The big game, the big race, the big competition.
Who is going to win? We all want to, right? How many lives are built around the power of winning? The feeling of winning has changed the lives of so many.
Of course, defeat has done the same thing.
One thing is for sure, the winner and the loser will change in some way.
What the change is, depends on the kind of game I play.
Win or lose, the ultimate prize in all the games I play is the change I feel within myself.
Life itself is a game, and I change every second.
My cells and organs are always changing and modifying the body I exist in.
My mind is capturing and intercepting thoughts from my consciousness, that change my world.
My spirit is guiding me in all my perceptions and the probabilities that are created.
One big game of change.
So what is the nature of these games? How can I describe how I feel about them? I found something that might answer those questions from James P.
Carse, who was a professor of history and the literature of religion at NYU.
It is from his 1986 book "Finite and Infinite Games.
" "There are at least two kinds of games.
One could be called finite, the other infinite.
A finite game is played for the purpose of winning, an infinite game for the purpose of continuing to play.
Finite players play within boundaries; infinite players play with boundaries.
Surprise causes finite play to end; it is the reason for infinite play to continue.
To be prepared against surprise is to be trained.
To be prepared for surprise is to be educated.
The finite play for life is serious; the infinite play of life is joyous.
The joyfulness of infinite play, its laughter, lies in learning to start something we cannot finish.
No one can play a game alone.
One cannot be human by oneself.
Our social existence has ...
an inescapably fluid character.
...
we are not the stones over which the stream of the world flows; we are the stream itself.
Change itself is the very basis of our continuity as persons.
Only that which can change can continue; this is the principle by which infinite players live.
" We are all infinite players.
Sometimes we act as finite players, but then we change.
It is through these changes that I experience and express who I am.
I grow into a grander version of myself.
As Carse says, our purpose is to continue to play in joyfulness, laughter and learning.
That game has no losers.
Who is going to win? We all want to, right? How many lives are built around the power of winning? The feeling of winning has changed the lives of so many.
Of course, defeat has done the same thing.
One thing is for sure, the winner and the loser will change in some way.
What the change is, depends on the kind of game I play.
Win or lose, the ultimate prize in all the games I play is the change I feel within myself.
Life itself is a game, and I change every second.
My cells and organs are always changing and modifying the body I exist in.
My mind is capturing and intercepting thoughts from my consciousness, that change my world.
My spirit is guiding me in all my perceptions and the probabilities that are created.
One big game of change.
So what is the nature of these games? How can I describe how I feel about them? I found something that might answer those questions from James P.
Carse, who was a professor of history and the literature of religion at NYU.
It is from his 1986 book "Finite and Infinite Games.
" "There are at least two kinds of games.
One could be called finite, the other infinite.
A finite game is played for the purpose of winning, an infinite game for the purpose of continuing to play.
Finite players play within boundaries; infinite players play with boundaries.
Surprise causes finite play to end; it is the reason for infinite play to continue.
To be prepared against surprise is to be trained.
To be prepared for surprise is to be educated.
The finite play for life is serious; the infinite play of life is joyous.
The joyfulness of infinite play, its laughter, lies in learning to start something we cannot finish.
No one can play a game alone.
One cannot be human by oneself.
Our social existence has ...
an inescapably fluid character.
...
we are not the stones over which the stream of the world flows; we are the stream itself.
Change itself is the very basis of our continuity as persons.
Only that which can change can continue; this is the principle by which infinite players live.
" We are all infinite players.
Sometimes we act as finite players, but then we change.
It is through these changes that I experience and express who I am.
I grow into a grander version of myself.
As Carse says, our purpose is to continue to play in joyfulness, laughter and learning.
That game has no losers.
Source...