Play

I play the rules not the game, just like a greedy lawyer, just like a dumb high school teacher, just like Flippo Inzaghi or Simone, just like a playboy. But sometimes, when I am not looking, when I am not in the game, the game gets me. See, everything other than the game is me. See, the game is not and can never be me. It is just a game I play. But then again sometimes the game plays me, just like it did a great judge, a willing high school student, Beckham or Stam, enough said.

At first, I thought it is simple: the game can beat you or you can beat it. That’s it. But I was beaten. The game gets you specially when you become so natural at it that playing is as natural as breathing, that winnning or losing is a matter of life and death to you. Then and only then it can get to you and get you, when you look at yourself playing the game and not realize that you are playing a game. Then you are done for. No coming back.

And then there is the process of boredom by which some players want to change the rules but in a legal way. It is like talking the ref into adding an extra player to your team after halftime. I say, you need to settle, and get over it. It is the rules that we play not the game. And rules can always be against you, if you don’t play them. But then again, the most intersting games are the ones where the rules can’t be changed, but there is always new found ways to play them. It takes creativity to survive when the rules are not yours.