Most people live their lives like playing Monopoly, in a linear way, always going forward no matter what. They encounter problems, and they keep going. They encounter fortune and they keep going. They always move forward, as the dices of destiny dictate. Sometimes they have setbacks; sometimes they jump a couple of steps forward; sometimes they find fortune, and sometimes they have to spend time in jail, while the rest of the world keeps moving.
Other people live their lives like playing Chess. They move very slowly, they think and get stressed out with all the possibilities in front, and all the consequences of every possible move they could make. They not necessarily move forward, and sometimes they move sideways, or in angles, or even backwards; and many times they seem to be static and unwilling to move, like with having so many doubts about their next move, when seeing from the Monopoly person’s perspective.
While a Monopoly person might think a Chess person lives in confusion, the Chess person is not. The Chess person lives in stress and anxiety rather than confusion. It is the Monopoly person who some times encounter confusion, when there is no forward movement and clear destiny orders dictated by the dices in their lives.
So many people confuse love with good moments. They find someone, they have great sex and great moments together talking, laughing and doing things, so because they are having so much excitement, they confuse that with love. They want more with that person, they want to make those moments everyday because it is so much fun to be with that person. And when that other person is feeling the same, the first think not only he/she is in love, but the other person is in love with them, so they think they have found the perfect mate for the rest of their lives.
Most times they get married thinking this would be for eternity, yet they didn’t realize what they had was excitement in their lives, and that is something completely different from love. So after a couple of years, when daily life takes over, and the dirty clothes are forgotten in the bathroom; the toothpaste is missing the cap; the dishes remain in the sink, the bed remains undone the whole day, and so on, they feel love is gone, because instead of having all the excitement they used to have together, now it has become a routine of boring and upsetting little details. They think the other person changed because is not giving what they expected. They still want the same from before, but the other person is not giving it, so they think the other person changed.
How many marriages complain the other person changed? How many marriages end dissolving because of that reason?
Living the Monopoly life it is always going forward; there is no thinking…dices of destiny will tell. In the Monopoly life there is quick classification of things and people, because there is simply no time to stop, observe, think and analyze…you have to keep moving forward…that’s the game! There is no much planning either, and the concepts of “playing by ear” and “dealing with the problems as they come” are the main way of living life.
So when it comes to love, most people take it like; “we are having great sex, we are having great times together, and we both feel the same way…we are in love!” Then life shows the other details later, and they feel the other person changed, and there are tears and recriminations to the other. They didn’t stop, think and analyze what the real situation was with them and the other person, and so quickly classified and moved forward, as it is the way in the Monopoly life.
Not that one way is better way than the other. Each way of life has its own advantages and problems.
In the Monopoly life you don’t think and analyze much, but instead is a life of quicker decisions and forward movement, so you move and go somewhere all the time, which allows for more experiences in life. In the Chess life you don’t move much, and everything seems to take forever to happen, yet you know why things are happening and better understand the situations you get involved in throughout life.
There is no better way than the other. They are just different, and each one has its own.
I live the Chess life. Which one do you live?
Raul
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