Play the Game

“Play the game everybody play the game of love
This is your life - don't play hard to get
It's a free free world all you have to do is fall in love
Play the game yeah play the game of love
Your life - don't play hard to get
It's a free free world all you have to do is fall in love”

Play the Game – Queen

Life is said to be like many things – a box of chocolates, a party, a coin which you can only spend once, a great big canvas or just like a game. If you play the right hand, roll the dice perfectly, make the smartest moves and align with the best against the enemy, you will win, right? But just what game are we talking about here.

Is life like a game of Scrabble, where if we choose the right words we get the highest points? Or is it more like Monopoly – the best thing to do is own property, build on and take a chance every now and again while avoiding jail. How about The Game of Life, which makes living seem like plain sailing through university, easily getting married and securing top notch job. Or is life the murder mystery that is Cluedo or the bluffing nature of Poker, the strategy and chance of Risk or even a puzzle like a jigsaw? Is it, in fact, not based on a bestselling rainy day activity, but something sporty? Is life the brutal force of rugby, the precision of golf or the patience of cricket? Is life like a game show where the point is to answer the right question and win the money?  How about life being like a drinking game – drink with your mates until you forget and you will be merry.  Or is life just a stupid game someone invented and if you think about it, you lose (you just lost the game).

And even if we did know which game to play in life, do we play the same game for each part of our varying lives? I can see scrabble going terribly wrong if you use the wrong words with the one you love. And imagine trying to take over different departments of your job like in Risk. Then there are the rules: everyone has different ideas of the best way to play. For example, when I partake in a game of Circle of Death each card represents something different each time. And finally, the biggest question of all: who do you choose to play your game with?

To me, if life is a game and you have to play it, I feel you should play your own game. Call me cliché but if all the games above can be invented by someone, then surely your own life’s game can be invented to. From all I’ve read and heard over my years, we should play by our own rules and form alliances based on our own opinions and most importantly abstain from cheating our through life.