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Sitaram
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Joined: 14 Sep 2005
Posts: 1079
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 Posted: Sat Sep 17, 2005 1:42 pm Post subject: Playing the Game |
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| Sitaram wrote: | Let us make believe, and imagine a certain scenario.
I come to you and say, “Let’s play chess.” You agree, and I bring out a
chess board, and pieces, and set them up on a table. But, suddenly, you
grab a handful of the pieces off of the table, jump into a nearby sandbox,
set the pieces up in the sand, and you begin to pretend that they are
soldiers at war. You beckon to me to join you in your make-believe.
In once sense, I cannot really complain, can I? I mean, I did invite you to
“play Chess” and, in your mind, this is exactly what you are doing. You
have taken the pieces and you are indeed playing with them.
But that was not quite what I had in mind, was it, when I suggested that
we “play chess.” Chess is a game with rules. We cannot just do
anything we feel like. Well, actually, we can do whatever we like if we are
age four or five. But such play in the sandbox, as fun as it may be, is not
“serious chess.” In fact, it is not chess at all, but simply the antics of
someone who is too immature to understand the actual game, who lacks
knowledge and foundation, and does not have the prolonged attention
span and discipline to play a real game of chess.
In order to be a real chess player, it is necessary to be serious and
disciplined and to abide by certain things.
Now, we may substitute the game of chess in our example above with the
discussion of literature or the discussion of religion.
I might say to you, “Let’s discuss a work of literature” and you say, “Yes,
let’s do that!” But then, I open the book, and raise some question, and,
you throw up your hands and say, “well, but its all fiction, make-believe.
So, there is no point to asking why Raskolnikov did this and did not do
that, or how Hamlet felt. End of discussion! What shall we talk about
next?”
Well, certainly, you have kept your part of the bargain. You discussed
literature. Or did you? One could not call the above exchange a
discussion of literature any more than the sandbox activity could be called
a game of chess.
When we are teenagers, we feel that our minds are very powerful and
gifted. We may feel that many other things are just so much nonsense
and what we see is so clear and accurate. We speak off the top of our
heads sometimes, and make quick work of some issue, dismissing it as
simply this, or simply that, with no room for further investigation or
consideration. Our problem is that we desire instant gratification and
recognition, but we do not want the discomfort of the labor and time
necessary to earn that recognition and gratification.
An older, more disciplined mind, would make a careful reading of the
book or books to be discussed. They would take notes. They would be
sure to read all the footnotes available. They would research things not
familiar to them. They might seek out one or two commentaries or
criticisms. They would identify important questions or principles for
consideration. Then they might collect some example passages from their
readings for citation, to support their views. But should they reached the
point in their thinking where they begin to feel a certain sense of
conviction regarding some point, they will exercise restraint and
forbearance. They will not rashly assert their conviction as the Gospel
truth. They will leave things open-ended, both for others who participate
in the discussion, as well as for themselves, to allow those others to
naturally come to the same conviction, and to allow themselves the
possibly of changing their own view. In short, they would seek out and
assemble before themselves the thoughts and opinions of many minds,
both living and past, spanning historical periods, because such an
assembly of minds and thoughts is the kind of corporate effort possible
only for human beings, which separates humans from the rest of the
animal kingdom, and creates the possibility for some truly great
achievement or insight or synthesis.
The kind of inquiry I have just described entails lots of hard work, to lay a
foundation. Such work can take hours, at the very least, but may extend
over weeks, months or even years.
It is good to be a child. It is also good to grow up. A recent Pulitzer
prize-winning novel, by Edward Jones, opens with the line “You never get
over having been a child.” Sandboxes and make-believe and naïve
idealism are good and necessary at a certain point in time. But, if we
never leave the sandbox, then we never mature, and we are cheating
ourselves out of having a much richer, deeper, more rewarding
intellectual experience.
If you have the discipline, during the course of the coming years, to do
engage in the readings and discussions and compositions which are
required to put the world into your mind, then, one day, your mind will
become your world.
Put the world in your mind and your mind becomes a world. If you
become such an “insider” then you shall never be an outsider like Camus’
“Stranger”, and you might even survive the concentration camp of a
Viktor Frankl.
The world is your oyster, if you want it. For the first time in the history of
mankind, technology makes available to us most of the great minds of
human history, at little or no cost. And for the first time in centuries,
there is enough prosperity and medical advancement that many of us
actually have the time and leisure to undertake such an endeavor.
This little essay which I am writing here is a form of creative prose. The
term “creative” gives us lots of license and leeway. No one can really
complain too loudly about what you say, if all you claim to do is “be
creative.” I have chosen to say what I have to say in the medium and
vehicle of such an essay and to make my points indirectly, rather than to
say things directly. Choosing to express myself in this manner is an
exercise in forbearance. If anyone has taken a genuine interest in the
kinds of things I have to say, then they will follow my posts and they will
give serious consideration to my advice, if they feel it is pertinent to their
own situation. Anyone who is not interested or serious, who probably
shall never read this essay, would not take seriously my advice if I were
to communicate it in a more direct fashion. They would not benefit from
my advice and, quite possibly, they would become angry and defensive,
creating an atmosphere which would help neither themselves nor the
community at large. |
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