How And Why Backgammon Is Reflective Of My Life

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3 months ago

I’ve been playing this game since about 1978. I’ve become pretty good over the years. I’ll play anyone, anytime, anywhere.

The game involves definite strategy but luck can be a factor.

Is that not the same as life itself?

If you understand the game, you learn to accept each and every roll of the dice as a separate incident that can possibly change the outcome of the game for the better or worse.

Again, is that not the same as life itself.

I play the game for fun. I don’t gamble with my money when I play, although I have in the past. As a rule, I don’t really gamble much on anything in life.

On the other hand, life is somewhat of a gamble in and of itself.

In my case, I’ve had to learn the hard way that gambling, whether it’s with money, time, my future, my life, or a roll of the dice in a backgammon game, I need to be careful about the chances I take in life. On the other hand, I’ve come to realize that if I never take chances or, gamble, as it were, I’ll never get anywhere. In other words, if I don’t take chances once in a while, the chances are I’ll never win, and if I do, it will be because of luck.

Isn’t that also a gamble?

I think of myself as a conservative gambler regardless of if it’s for money or any of the others I mentioned above.

I play backgammon to relax. I take short breaks during the day and sneak in a game or two online.

There are times, from the first roll, it appears that I will have my rear-end handed to me or I’ll be handing my opponent’s rear-end to him or her, only to have the game turn out completely the opposite of what I thought in the beginning.

The bottom line is, the lesson in the game is you never know how things will turn out. If you have any chance to win, you have to play to the end unless your opponent quits. In that case, you win by default. If you quit, you are handing a win to your opponent.

Is that not like life itself? Is that not like what we try to do here at WA?

It is for me.

Every day of life, sometimes, every minute of every day is like a game of backgammon or at least a roll of the dice in a backgammon game.

You win some and you lose some.

That’s just how it goes.

I have to remind myself of that often.