Well it’s been a while since I’ve written a note. A lots been happening in life and somehow I haven’t been able to get the inspiration to write until this last Saturday night. Tariq and Reem (friends from Lahore) dropped in to attend a wedding so sat down with the ‘T’ to have a puff and then ramble on aimlessly over a cold beverage.
Questions from the ‘T’: Would I like to live forever?
Answer from the ‘O’: if you would have asked me that 3-4 years ago I would have said no but today I would say yes.
Question from the ‘T’: because ?
Answer from the ‘O’: because now I have come to realize that it would not be lonely to live forever. The background being that we, as human beings, are loners to begin with. We are born alone, we grow up alone (I mean realistically and not philosophically here), we grow old alone and then we die alone to be buried, cremated, frozen (whatever tickles your fancy) ALONE!
Then the discussion really got random. . . and somehow we got talking about man-monkey’s and language being the limitation to our ability to understand and attain out true potential to the battle between ‘Free-will and Destiny’ and what we know is life.
To pick on the latter I had an epiphany at that stage which (I think only to me) defines life to the ‘T’ (pun intended)
‘Life is best defined as a game of 5 card stud’ (that’s a game of poker to the unknowing eye where you are dealt 3 cards; you bet your round, are dealt another card; bet and then you are dealt the last card and you do the final round of betting and then there is a show of hands for all remaining players to determine the pot winner). Here’s how the analogy worked out in my mind.
The three cards you are dealt is your life from birth to teenage-hood. The betting is your feedback to the world on how good or bad your life is at that point. Based on that the ‘dealer’ (you can fit in any philosophical equivalent to this – parent, friends, God . . . whatever) hands you another card (in an effort to improve your odds) this second round is your middle age where one ‘finds’ themselves and makes a life by having a career, kids (or not) etc. the last card dealt is old age; you have invested your stack (that’s your chip count/money on the table), you have played your hand and you are now awaiting to reap the benefit(s) or not.
That to me is perhaps the simplest definition of life that I have been able to get to in my second round of betting and all you poker players out there can definitely understand the excitement of the rounds and the tension, poker faces and anticipation of winning that ‘big hand’!
A question may be in your minds about the conclusion of this poker game/life. Well here are my last two bits. In case you won the hand and took the pot (which should be sizeable by now) you are one of those lucky few who faced life’s most stressful part at old age (call it terminal illness, a sickness that was killing you or just the stresses of life getting the best of you) and beat the odds aka the miraculous recovery from sickness, the windfall of good luck that buys you some extra years or the relief that your life isn’t all that bad and you might be ready for another round of cards (yea right . . .you nearly popped an artery at that last round).
What about the ones that fold their cards during the rounds of betting you ask?
Well we all have known or heard of untimely exits of people who we thought were least likely to exit the table haven’t we?
Until later . . . I am going to relish my round and place some chips on the table.
‘ALL IN’ I call at the table as I stop typing.
