Juneflower - Real life lessons from a game

Frivolous though it may seem, a simple word game “Book Worm” (wherein the player has to connect adjacent tiles to form words – and form long ones to avoid burning tiles which will almost certainly end the game if they reach the bottom of the tile grid, new tiles appear from the top after every turn) has tickled my thinking cells quite a bit. There are a few things that have reinforced my understanding of life:

1. A bird in the hand is worth two in the bush: Sometimes I form a small word first. And then I suddenly notice that I can form a longer one. But I click “enter” in a hurry. WE OFTEN LOSE OUT ON OPPORTUNITIES WELL WITHIN OUR REACH – we see them, we go close to them and then we let them pass. The reason could be haste, indiscretion, ignorance or sheer stupidity. But the fact is that – it happens.

2. Greed – the worst of the Seven Sins: There are little pats-on-the-back that Bookworm gives me from time-time - in the form of Green, Yellow or Blue tiles which will fetch me more points when used. I keep waiting for those much needed adjacent tiles to garner extra points due to the coloured tiles as well as the length of my exquisite word. I am all eager to showcase my grandiose language (to Bookworm…err...myself…err…whomever) when all of a sudden, a burning tile appears over my coloured tile. I cannot use the burning tile in any way. After a turn, the burning tile eats up my coloured tile and there I go! WE MISS OUT ON SMALLER AND VALUABLE OPPORTUNITIES IN A FIT OF AVARICE, WAITING FOR A “BIGGER” ONE TO COME OUR WAY.

3. Sometimes, you just gotta give up: There have been situations when two burning tiles have reached the extreme bottom of the tile grid. In spite of my best efforts, there is absolutely no way I can connect those two tiles to form a meaningful word. I press enter and there ends my game and my dream of clearing the highest level someday. Our failures are not totally attributable to us. EXTRANEOUS FACTORS CAN RUIN OUR CAUSE.

4. Victims of circumstances: We all are, are we not? I am so engrossed in using all the burning tiles as soon as they appear that I end up utilizing only the top tiles in my grid. After a while, I realize that the bottom of my grid is filled with formidable letters – W, X, Z, K and the like with no vowel nearby. WE NEGLECT ONE PART OF OUR LIFE AT THE COST OF THE OTHER. This is the primal cause of regret. A typical one would be – “I wish I had balanced my academics and guitar classes”.

Lessons are to be learnt from everything – nothing in this world is really trivial in an absolute sense. Of course, in a relative sense, few details may be less important than the others. We should move from one situation to another fairly quickly in life – so that we are presented with new information and new avenues to learn. Another reason not to stagnate, right? In this case, the only direction is forward or sideward – but not backward. Just another perspective of how learning and progress are interrelated.