A Roll of the Dice

Kathleen and I play a lot of backgammon on her iPad when we go out to eat. It’s fun, and it relieves us from coming up with something interesting to talk about. But more important than it being just something to do while we wait for our food, backgammon has become a metaphor for the flow and ebb of life itself for me.

Backgammon is played on a board with discs and dice. It’s the dice that really matter after you've mastered a certain skill level. And I propose that this luck factor is how it goes with life too.

Sometimes the dice will be with Kathleen, and she will win game after game. Now she knows what to do with the good rolls and also how to minimize the damage of a bad roll here and there. So with some good luck, Kathleen will have a winning streak that will last the meal or even days on end if she's really hot.

It pretty much goes the same with me. I love the dice and often have good luck with them. Things get really interesting when Kathleen and I are both throwing good rolls and the dice are working for us. It’s then a hot game that is full of excitement.

But eventually, the dice go cold, and all your rolls are losers. But I've learned that this too shall pass. Either stop playing for a while or play through the losing streak. The good rolls will come again, and you'll win again.

And so you see, this too is how life goes. After you get the skills, experience, and have honed your intuition, it’s all a matter of the dice. And a willingness to play the game whether it be backgammon or life!