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Name: AKA
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Changing the World
Buttons
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 2.5 Canada License.
Sunday, November 19, 2006
Not literally of course, more rather, forget the saying "life is like a box of chocolates" (sorry, Forrest).
I've finally figured it out. "It" being life. I know philosophers have spent centuries trying to understand life and it's mysteries, but it only took me the amount of time as it takes to order a large double-double at Tim Horton's to understand it all. Though the chocolate analogy works to describe the randomness of life, I've found another analogy that nails it in the head: basketball.
Pretty much everything (or at least all the scenarios in my own life) can be broken into quarters that work like a bsketball game. For realzies. Check this:
1st Quarter
You start the game off, get a feel for the court and the other team you're playing against. You learn and adapt skills you need to cover the opponent team's players. You have a bit of pressure to do well, but being just the first quarter, anything could happen so it's way too early to say how the game will end.
Compare this to when you a kid and teenager. You're starting to learn small life lessons, what type of friends you are apt to make. Your parents teachings get drilled in your head. You either take to them (fish : water) or rebel (oil : water) or maybe just mix to form a different consistency (Kool-Aid : water).
2nd Quarter
Now you've settled into your game. Maybe had a few change-ups from what the starting lineup was, but you're still in the game, maybe having pulled yourself together and gaining on the other team by using your knack for maneuvering around the opponents. You may accidentally knock a couple players down, causing the referee to call a foul and give the other team the shots from the free-throw line. You realize that being so invested in the game now means you have to make smart decisions and plan for the next half of your game.
Compare this to your late teens to early thirties. You've made mistakes, learned that life can bully you around, things won't always work the way you want them to. You won't have all the same friends from your high school years, but will find new people that fit better with your temperment. You're in the real world. You learn from experiences and come to decide what type of person you are and want to be in your future. This helps you decide morals, lifestyle and career.
Half-time
First half is over. Time to go to the locker room, rework your game plan and go over new plays. You fret over the mistakes made in the first half but know that the next half is what counts for everything.
Quarter-life crisis: where are you? Where are you going? Is it worth going there? No more room for mistakes because now you're in the real world, and your mistakes only hurt you. But there's time to make up for your slip-ups as long as
you stay focused.
3rd Quarter
Back in the game. Fresh start. New players. The fans are more focused and keyed up to see you win. New strategy in place, you go at the game with more drive. Make the plays and score the points that will make it to the game recap on ESPN. Maybe even the week's best plays overview. Scoring with well-timed plays count for everything becuase you're trying to get ahead of the other team.
You're in your 30s now. New people enter your life. Family and friends root for your success in your personal and work life. You're enthused to do well in both to make a good life for yourself. Possibly marriage, kids, a house, a mortgage, promotions: you get acknowledged for your contributions to all of these. You try to save up for your future, and create some sort of stability and security.
4th Quarter.
You're either close behind or ahead of the other team. Either way, you have to keep up and maintain your lead. The coach's strategies may shift to more tense ones where you're calling more fouls and making sure your starting line-up players are back in the game for the crucial moments. You need to maintain your hold on the opponent because in this game, anything can happen at any time. There's no way to know who will come out as the better clutch player and save the day. Because of the intensity you make amazing drives to the basket and long-range shots. The buzzer goes off and everything is decided. You either won or lost. No over-time allowed.
In your 40s through your senior years. Investments in all aspects of your life will show if they have profited: your (potential) children grow up, go out into the world and show you what they've learned from you, financial ventures will either be profitable or not, you finalize retirement plans. There's no real way to turn anything around - you keep striving ahead. Then the inevitable death happens. And who knows what happens after this point.
I've finally figured it out. "It" being life. I know philosophers have spent centuries trying to understand life and it's mysteries, but it only took me the amount of time as it takes to order a large double-double at Tim Horton's to understand it all. Though the chocolate analogy works to describe the randomness of life, I've found another analogy that nails it in the head: basketball.
Pretty much everything (or at least all the scenarios in my own life) can be broken into quarters that work like a bsketball game. For realzies. Check this:
You start the game off, get a feel for the court and the other team you're playing against. You learn and adapt skills you need to cover the opponent team's players. You have a bit of pressure to do well, but being just the first quarter, anything could happen so it's way too early to say how the game will end.
Compare this to when you a kid and teenager. You're starting to learn small life lessons, what type of friends you are apt to make. Your parents teachings get drilled in your head. You either take to them (fish : water) or rebel (oil : water) or maybe just mix to form a different consistency (Kool-Aid : water).
2nd Quarter
Now you've settled into your game. Maybe had a few change-ups from what the starting lineup was, but you're still in the game, maybe having pulled yourself together and gaining on the other team by using your knack for maneuvering around the opponents. You may accidentally knock a couple players down, causing the referee to call a foul and give the other team the shots from the free-throw line. You realize that being so invested in the game now means you have to make smart decisions and plan for the next half of your game.
Compare this to your late teens to early thirties. You've made mistakes, learned that life can bully you around, things won't always work the way you want them to. You won't have all the same friends from your high school years, but will find new people that fit better with your temperment. You're in the real world. You learn from experiences and come to decide what type of person you are and want to be in your future. This helps you decide morals, lifestyle and career.
Half-time
First half is over. Time to go to the locker room, rework your game plan and go over new plays. You fret over the mistakes made in the first half but know that the next half is what counts for everything.
Quarter-life crisis: where are you? Where are you going? Is it worth going there? No more room for mistakes because now you're in the real world, and your mistakes only hurt you. But there's time to make up for your slip-ups as long as
you stay focused.3rd Quarter
Back in the game. Fresh start. New players. The fans are more focused and keyed up to see you win. New strategy in place, you go at the game with more drive. Make the plays and score the points that will make it to the game recap on ESPN. Maybe even the week's best plays overview. Scoring with well-timed plays count for everything becuase you're trying to get ahead of the other team.
You're in your 30s now. New people enter your life. Family and friends root for your success in your personal and work life. You're enthused to do well in both to make a good life for yourself. Possibly marriage, kids, a house, a mortgage, promotions: you get acknowledged for your contributions to all of these. You try to save up for your future, and create some sort of stability and security.
4th Quarter.
You're either close behind or ahead of the other team. Either way, you have to keep up and maintain your lead. The coach's strategies may shift to more tense ones where you're calling more fouls and making sure your starting line-up players are back in the game for the crucial moments. You need to maintain your hold on the opponent because in this game, anything can happen at any time. There's no way to know who will come out as the better clutch player and save the day. Because of the intensity you make amazing drives to the basket and long-range shots. The buzzer goes off and everything is decided. You either won or lost. No over-time allowed.
In your 40s through your senior years. Investments in all aspects of your life will show if they have profited: your (potential) children grow up, go out into the world and show you what they've learned from you, financial ventures will either be profitable or not, you finalize retirement plans. There's no real way to turn anything around - you keep striving ahead. Then the inevitable death happens. And who knows what happens after this point.
Post-Game Comments
I don't know if this is morbid for anyone, to see life laid out so bluntly. But for most people it's true, obviously a little more detailed though. To ma
ny this is a satisfying life and to some others there needs to be more excitement and a lot more on the line (think playoff time) for their life to be fulfilling. I don't know which of these I am. I think I'm stuck in between to be honest - I want the stability and normalcy of a planned out life, but at the same time I'm yearning for there to be a little more substance. At this point I can't say anthing (being only in the 2nd quarter). What I do know is that I am a clutch player. I will screw up now (and I do), but God willing, if I live long enough to make it through the "4th quarter", I perform well enough under pressure to know that I'll come out winning in the end.
And yes, I don't like Kobe Bryant. It's borderline eternal-hate. And it's not a recent hate that developed when he did his 81-point-record thing. Though it grew at that point when I saw him sink shot after shot against the Raptors. But I've hated him since he came into the NBA as a rookie way back when. Don't ask why - it just is.
ny this is a satisfying life and to some others there needs to be more excitement and a lot more on the line (think playoff time) for their life to be fulfilling. I don't know which of these I am. I think I'm stuck in between to be honest - I want the stability and normalcy of a planned out life, but at the same time I'm yearning for there to be a little more substance. At this point I can't say anthing (being only in the 2nd quarter). What I do know is that I am a clutch player. I will screw up now (and I do), but God willing, if I live long enough to make it through the "4th quarter", I perform well enough under pressure to know that I'll come out winning in the end.And yes, I don't like Kobe Bryant. It's borderline eternal-hate. And it's not a recent hate that developed when he did his 81-point-record thing. Though it grew at that point when I saw him sink shot after shot against the Raptors. But I've hated him since he came into the NBA as a rookie way back when. Don't ask why - it just is.
6 Comments:
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Yes it's weird. But then again, isn't life? (That's deep, right? Think about it for a bit and get back to me).
Ari (Baking and Books)
Smurf: I KNEW YOU WOULD SAY THAT. I knew that if you read this post that would be the first or only thing you said. It's too late not to hate on him - it's a reflex now.
Ari: Thanks for coming by! My brother is a HUGE basketball fan so I was forced to start liking it too and oddly enough this idea just hit me out of the blue.