Greetings Professor Falken

"A strange game.

The only winning move is not to play."
--Joshua, WarGames

Originally this post was going to be a complete rant on a phrase which I've heard many times this week...some "advice" that keeps popping up...and it still will be to some degree, though I've softened a bit...

...a bit...and I will reveal said phrase a little later so bear with me!

Anyway, it was bowling night and the reason that I'm launching into this story is because my game was affected by that particular phrase and I even joked about it with my teammates.

You see, the first game, I bowled a 94. Pathetic only because when you looked across, frame by frame, you saw a pattern developing...9-, 6-3, 7-2, 4-5, etc. You get the picture...

For a moment there I thought we had slipped into some Twilight Zone type of game where we were German bowling...

Nine! Nine!

NEIN! NEIN! You WILL NOT get that 10th pin down! Don't even think about it!

The funny thing is that I actually tried hard to get it...but that last pin was elusive as always.

The second game, I shrugged it off and, once again, labored to make a complete effort to bowl well. Even taking that phrase into account as I did the first game!

I was rewarded with a 105...again, I saw quite a few NEINs up there!

Then, the team captain said that he needed a 130 from me on the last game.

Fat chance of that since my average between the first two games wasn't even 100.

So you know what advice I took?

Pretty much a variation on the WarGames quote that opened this post...I approached it by telling him that I'd see what I could do...and when I got up there for that first frame, I pretty much didn't give a damn.

Strike!

I ended with a spare, 2 strikes and a NEIN...but a 153--the best game I had so far this season!

And, once again, I can apply this to life...you see, I often observe some people walking around blindly and blissfully unaware through their existence and they seem to reap the benefits...money falls into their laps...they luck out in everything they do...just not caring...all good things to those who are indifferent.

The only winning move was not to play...by the rules dictating the approach people advised me to take...the only winning move was...not to care.

Now earlier in the week, I was told that I was cynical and needed to do something to make life better...then I was given the same advice up to and including tonight...

THINK POSITIVELY!

Ok...well that's good in theory but not in practice.

You see, I "thought positively" that I would win on some bets I made this weekend--none came to pass.

I "thought positively" that I would bowl well the first two games. You read how well that worked!

I "thought positively" in the past on things that I wanted out of life...nope, didn't work.

And these aren't all material things...I'm not that type of person. I just want to be happy in certain aspects of my life but so far none of that has materialized.

So I wonder...what do these sages say when you actually do "think positively" and it doesn't work out?

Is it like praying to whatever god you worship and then when things go the opposite way, they chalk it up to god's plan?

"It was meant to be!"

So if it's "meant to be", then what's the point in praying? In turn, what's the point in "thinking positively"?

To illustrate, I call upon a paraphrasing of VP candidate Joe Biden...something he often did during the debate...

"Let me repeat...I didn't care that last game"...

...and I actually excelled!

I think if I "thought positively" and, as things do in my life, events always went awry, it would be akin to the "Serenity Now!" phrase from Seinfeld...

THINK POSITIVELY now...insanity later!



And that's one to grow on!

P.S. Since I have heard that phrase many times, the last few days one song has been running through my head...and, of course, no videos or lyrics exist on it...

It was that song the Brady kids sang...React! Positively!

Am I the only one who remembers that damn song? Lol

;)