Advance To Begin

So oddly enough, and perhaps not too surprising, I find myself in a quiet place, simply vanishing from the world, lost in a deep trail of thought, contemplating about many things, but mainly about life...not just my life, but lives...or perhaps even life in general. Thinking about all my endeavours, and about lessons learnt, about adventures had, roads travelled, taverns explored and strangers met and lost along the way of my journey through life thus far. I find myself thinking about other people’s lives, like the strangers I have met and lost along my travels, trying to figure out what their adventures and travels must have been like, and how it is that they came across a pathway that lead them to me? I find myself thinking about the pathways and about the roads and taverns, rivers and seas running along the map of life, and whether everything along the road to living was meant to be, or whether choices and change leads all of these things, leaping and overlapping layer after layer, one on top of the other, all leading to what we call destiny, hoping that we can find some sense of accomplishment in what we is a well and fully explored life. And looking back at the tracks I’ve left behind, trying my best to remember all that I’ve encountered and all the paths not taken, I can’t help but wonder, have I chosen all the best paths, made the most sense of my direction, or even worked out some kind of plan about exactly where I want my journey to end...not necessarily to destiny, but rather some kind of destination whatsoever?

Board games are a lot like life I realized...you get movements, directions, opportunities, obstacles, progression, regression, diversions, growth, incentives, surprises, risks, clues and so much more...Except, here’s perhaps the difference between life and a board game...A board game, though filled with direction, have a very set course which one has to follow. While some have diversions and detours, depending on the choices one makes when an opportunity or obstacle comes your way, eventually they all lead to the same two places...either you win or you lose the game. But life, on the other hand, is not quite so clearly cut, no black and white, and isn’t quite as simple. In life there are more risks, more problems, more diversions and detours, sometimes more opportunities and incentives, and at the end of the day, all the paths don’t lead to the same place, and there is no win or lose...the only outcome that is either good or bad, depends on what your opinion of your journey has been, and whether you are happy with the end result yourself. I must also note that the one great thing about board games is this, that you can find yourself given the great opportunity of being given the chance to move forward, or to simply advance, in one step, to begin, avoiding all the obstacles, problems and risks all at once. The problem with that in the game, and in life, is that you may have just passed the greatest opportunity in your life...so one has to ask, is going back or ahead to the beginning really worth the risk of passing an opportunity by?

So that can only leave me with one question, one final request to time and fate, one last soliloquy to beckon a challenge, not only to myself, but also to life, to living and to the living, in the hopes that my life, my mind, my heart and my spirit will bequeath me at least this one last piece of repose...Is starting over just another form of giving up, or is it simply coming to the realization that the only way of moving forward is to advance to a greater future, by moving back to Begin?