I am indebted to Reverend Pondurenga Das who contributed material for
this conversation.
There's the story about a man who wanted to improve his chess. So he
went to study with a chess champion.
He learned the Ruy Lopez and he learned the King's
Indian.
And after he learned those two new moves, he noticed he didn't win any
more games than he usually did.
So he went to study with a grandmaster.
He learned to queen side castle early, and he learned to
set up an en passant. Yet neither did knowing those two new
strategies give him an edge to win any more games than he usually did.
Life, like chess, is a game. You have your piece in life for which you
are responsible. You have your pieces in chess. Of all the chess
pieces, pawns are the least conspicuous.
Unlike castles and bishops, pawns can't sweep across the chessboard.
Unlike knights, pawns can't jump other pieces. Unlike the queen, pawns
can't move both straight and diagonally. Unlike the king, pawns aren't
the center of attention. Yet pawns' strength is their ability to move
inexorably
forward, one square at a time. And there're more pawns than any other
piece on the chessboard.
When your power pieces are maximized, how do you avoid weakening the
advantage yet leverage the occasion to move?
Develop your pawns.
Werner Erhard distinguishes "life" from "living". "Life" is the never
ending series of circumstances we encounter and the situations we put
up with or try to change during our time on
Earth.
"Living" is simply experiencing being here right now, right now, right
now. There's nothing to be except who you are. There's no place to get
to except here. There's no time to design a future except now. Living
life this way is called playing from win.
Your life has already turned out. This is it. So: what's next?
The next thing is the next thing and it's right in front of you. Choose
it. It's straight forward.