As good as I am in playing Chess, I stink in Backgammon!
My father taught me both of them – or taught me the Chess and attempted very hard for the Backgammon!
Both he and my better half are amazing players in the later one and I am always in awe in how can they do that.
Well I did not learn that much Backgammon from all those extensive training that my father had planned for me…except one sentence!
I think this one phrase stick to my grey cells because being a 7 years old kid; it was a strange sentence coming from my extremely logical father …
And that magical sentence is:
“Backgammon will teach you that 2+2 is not always equal to 4”.
He said that and he never thought in his wildest, very logical imagination that this simple sentence is what her daughter’s core life is made of, that this sentence is the most natural thing for her daughter…
Years passed and I grew up and heard the ABBA song “The winner takes it all” and fell in love with the part that says:
“The gods may throw a dice
Their minds as cold as ice
And someone way down here
Loses someone dear
The winner takes it all
The loser has to fall
Its simple and its plain
Why should I complain.”
We roll our dice and move our players and although luck, or synchronicity or whatever you want to call it, plays a role in the whole game of life, we still need some sort of strategy, some kind of planning… and ultimately we learn that sometimes no matter how much we plan and prepare ourselves for what is ahead in life, things will not work and go according to our master strategy…that our good old 2+2 is equal to zero or infinite or anything in between….
I learned that the hard way…that no matter what a good player I am in life, how much I prepare myself and plan and strategize, “The Gods may throw the dice” and there is NOTHING I can do other than modify my life and move on…..
The unexpected side of life, the unpredictability of it makes me shiver to my core and even right at that moment of fear an adrenalin shot of excitement develops somewhere deep in my being….
Does having a “faith” helps in dealing with all the unexpected in life?
Just by using the word “FAITH” in a sentence I opened myself for numerous prejudgments. I think, thanks to all the organized religions and specifically all three major mono-theist religions, the word faith is associated with some of the negative connotations….as if when you have faith you must be sitting on your "a…" and letting someone else lives your life….as if having faith is equal to being passive in life….
And in the same breath, there are some people that believe lacking faith is equal to doom and gloom…and is a major abomination for all the holies in life….
You hear a sentence like:
“Faith is one of the world's great evils, comparable to the smallpox virus but harder to eradicate." From Richard Dawkins.... and then you also hear one of my personal favorite quotes from no other source but Star Treck:):):)
"That's the thing about faith. If you don't have it, you can't understand it. And if you do, no explanation is necessary."
Regardless of what you think or believe about faith or lack of it for that matter, my problem starts when one person tries very hard to convince the other to join his/ her camp…..and the normal method of convincing is nothing short of verbal harassment….after all people mostly want to belittle each other's choice of life…to just tell them: “my way is better, is more correct, is right”…Oh that stinking battle of right vs. wrong!
What is it with us human race? Do we need the strength that comes from number? Does our personal belief and individual choices need some sort of “majority makes it more true”?
Sometimes I close my eyes and think all the wars that is going on in different corner of our world, happens everyday, over and over, in a smaller and sometimes spiritually nastier scale, between two people: being two neighbors, two colleagues, teacher and student, two paretners, two siblings, two friends, parent and a child, two lovers…..all in the name of “sharing ideas”, in the name of “giving you advice”, in the name of “teaching you”…..
What a nasty lives we lead sometimes….
And then we wonder why we do not have peace in Middle East!!!!!!!!!!
8 comments:
Amazing topic, capturing writing. One can go on and on and on and talk about the different aspects of the topic that you brought up.
As always mommy homeopath, I enjoyed your mixture of humor and seriousness. I enjoyed the way that you brought up a serious subject, with a residue of frustration I have to add :)- while adding the spice of your beautiful deep humor.
BTW I am one of those people that think Star Treck is the sum of all wisdom - the same thing that is said for the Godfather ha!
Just as a hunch is the sentence from Major Kira??
and should I be embarrassed that I do not know this Dawkins dude?!
Hi mommy homeopath,
That is so true. In the name of all those things, we lead discussions that are nothings short of verbal attack.
I just had the same experiment from one of my family members. She was trying very hard to tell me "because she loves me of course", that my method of motherhood is not good. And will you believe me if I tell you that she is not even a mother?
We came back from a little mini vacation yesterday and when I read your post I thought: is something in the air? and then I thought to myself that this happen ALL THE TIME. So sad.
Hope you, your better half and the little boss and your little Angel on his/her way are good and happy
Eve
Hi anonymous,
I always know it is you when there are appreciation of humor...and you have a good humor yourself you know?!
OH, Start Trek IS the sum of all wisdom and I think better than that is Star War hahhahha
You are right, such a sentence is from no one but Major Kira Noris!
As for "Dawkins dude" - that is cute!!- He is an evolutionary biologist and ethologist but more famous than being a scientist he is an atheist and that is the title that he is the most famous for. He holds the Chair for the Public Understanding of Science at the Oxford. "The selfish Gene" is a book that he became famous for and his most recent one is "The God delusion". I think whether one is a religious, atheist or just spiritual believer (or anything else for that matter), I think it is interesting to read his last book. But then again, I am a type of person that do study and read from the different sides of one argument / issue/ coin!
Be always happy
Hi dear Eve,
I hope you had a good mini vacation!
Thank you for asking about us. We are all Ok and leading our daily routine of life:):):)
Maybe something is in the air ALL the time….
The post came to me because two days ago I witnessed such a “loving” verbal attack. Someone that I know and still is mourning deeply the loss of her daughter (last year she passed away- almost 4 years old, due to brain cancer) was talking to few of us about how faith – “faith to higher good and no relation to religion” – is helping her to cope. So one of her so called friend, did not waste a second and started attacking this poor woman that “she is so wrong to believe in such an empty concept like faith and one day she will wake up and be more disappointed than before” and the best part for me was this: “Because she loves her, she is telling her all this”…..
Yes, something is in the air ALL THE TIME!
Be always happy
You know what? Most of us strongly feel like being the new age prophets and having the essential duty of leading people to the good!! While forgetting the fact that we ourselves need a single clue to find the path…
And what a nice sentence your father said! Concise and precise…
Have a nice day my dear MH; I enjoyed your post as usual…
Hi dear MH!
Nice post as usual,and interestingly, seems that we are both in a similar mood lately!
You know I had the opportunity of practicing "living peacefully in spite of differences" since I was younger, with my brother, who is very much like day and night with me.
There is a subtle difference between "respecting" the other one's beliefs and "accepting" them.
Cause most of the time people argue that "if I don't believe in the same thing as the other person does, there is no need for me to respect it." right! I believe in this too. But the important thing that we should learn is that as long as one's belief is not doing any harm to ownself, or the others, it can be accepted and lived by...and believe me, learning this and practicing it is not very easy. Especially in something like "faith" which is VERY difficult to be described, or judged.
...and I think your friend (in grief) is still lucky to have such concerned friends as you, in between all the other ones who want to correct every one in their own specific way.
Have a good weekend :)
Hi Parinaz,
I liked your phrase: "New age prophet"… So true my friend, So so true!
I am always in absolute shock that how can people be so sure of their understanding of right and wrong. You must know by now how I believe perception plays such an important role in the concept of life…well can someone tell me how they can be so sure that their way IS THE way?
Honestly most of the time I am only sure of how clueless I am…..
Be happy my dear
Hi dear Nava,
Let me first tell you something funny…I read you comment and the part that at the end you wished me a good weekend….and I told myself: Why is she wishing me good weekend in the middle of the week? Honestly I went checked my calendar and realized today, Sep 5 is Friday….I knew so well It is Sep 5 – because of some personal sentiments- but apparently my mind switched off on the days of the week some time ago!!! (Remember one of my earlier posts!!)
You are very lucky – and wise- that put the circumstances of being so different with your brother, in a good use. There are so many people that are in the same boat and become even more fixed on their “right” way of life…
I am from the group that generally think, “I may not accept your way, I may not even like it or use it in my life, but I for sure respect you for having it, respect your choice and respect your way of life…even if I don’t respect the idea, I still respect the person for choosing the idea!”. And as for faith…well one thing that I wonder is that why can’t we live and let others live, even if their belief is an empty promise or not or anything in between?
I liked Parinaz’s phrase: New age prophet…that is what we have at this time in the world!
You too have a wonderful weekend:):):)
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