I don’t like games on my phone. I think they’re a distraction, and many of them are downright annoying. Besides, I do have the IMDB app, and as long as you have that, you have all the distraction you need.
I do have one game on my phone. Chess. To say I know how to play Chess is an overstatement. I know how the pieces move, but I can’t say I have much of a strategy in moving them.
There’s a problem with the Chess game on my phone, however. I can beat it. It’s not that I’m an expert; it’s that I stumbled onto a glitch. If I move two Pawns and a Knight the same way in the same order at the beginning of the game, my computer opponent doesn’t know what to do. Seriously, it gets scared and my Knight dances all over the board picking off Bishops, Rooks, and the Queen until the computer asks to resign the match. (I never let it.) There are many times my Knight could be captured, but instead my opponent runs away like Sir Robin. I can almost hear the coconuts.
Any other combination of moves, and my opponent responds differently. In no other situation does it react the same way twice. But these three moves, I win.
Now here’s the real problem. What do you think I do when I open up a new game? Pawn. Pawn. Knight.
I like Chess because it challenges me. It makes me think. But what do I do? I take the path where I don’t have to think.
They say insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results. This is typically referenced in times of failure. However, what about the times it leads to success?
On the one hand, success is a good thing, and discovering a formula to make it happen is something to be excited about. On the other hand, when success leads to ease and stagnation, then I think we’re called to try something new. To play the pieces on the other side of the board.
Bottom line, I think we’re always called to grow, to learn, to develop our skills, whether they’re skills we’ve always had, or new ones we want to develop.
Where are you taking it easy? Where do you need to be challenged?
Patrick Day 