I weigh 1/10 of a pound less than the low watermark set on September 23rd. I will remain disciplined and patient as I move to break through the ever elusive 210 lb setpoint. More good news. I had no desire to drink beer yesterday outside of working through a single frustrating episode at work. And the urge to smoke weed remains, like bigfoot, ever at large. Now that we have those items out of the way, let’s revisit Candyland as the ultimate game of predetermination.
Zero+; Deuce ; M: 112 ; C: 75 ; P/U: 50 ; W : 4 mi
Health R.O.S.
- Weight: 210.3
- BMI: 28.4
- Fat %: 21.8
Are Life & Fate Like Candyland?
During my morning hike, I further contemplated this concept of predetermination and again related it back to Candyland. Why Candyland? My daughter and I were playing it last weekend in The 500 Acre Wood when I first associated the game with an easy way to to think about the topic.
As we examined in yesterday’s post, in Candyland once the cards are shuffled and the first player draws a card, the outcome of the game is predetermined. The game later reveals the winner. Another card game that emulates this is WAR, another of my childhood favorites.
Yet, I remain stuck on this idea of free will. Poker and Blackjack allow it, so I began to wonder how we might modify the rules of Candyland to add some choice and strategy so it more closely mimics life. Afterall, why not at least introduce the illusion of free will.
Free will is an illusion. People always choose the perceived path of greatest pleasure.
– Scott Adams, Author – The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy
Candyland Modification #1
In this Candyland modification, rather than drawing cards, you deal each player 3 cards. They play their cards however they like, but must draw a new card every time one is played.
This change would allow players to play only their most advantageous cards while potentially holding (e.g. not playing) any “go back” cards (like Gingerbread, Candycane, Gumdrop, etc) after they had passed these squares.
Of course, removing go back cards would be akin to removing setbacks in life. And since life is replete with setbacks aplenty, I feel this version would least resemble life. You can’t just not play your bad cards!
Modification #2
In this second version, we shuffle the deck and draw per normal, but each player gets their own deck. Additionally, we marry the game to life so the composition of each deck changes based on individual life decisions.
Therefore, if players choose positive outcomes, go back cards are replaced with double space cards. Cards like Gingerbread and Peanut are retired while higher go forward cards like Ice Cream and Lollipop are retained, even if the player has already passed these spaces on the board.
The idea here is that life is not setback free, but when you make the right choices (sobriety vs using, saving vs spending) life’s setbacks are less severe, and when they do occur (as they inevitably will) you recover faster because you’ve accumulated a hand of double space cards.
I believe this second change more accurately reflects life from the perspective of the fatalist. Fate deals us each a hand (a set of circumstances) that lays a potential path before us. But through our individual choices and actions, we influence the composition of the cards in our personal life deck.
Players with stronger decks (influenced by good choices) advance more consistently and ever more rapidly, experiencing comparatively more minor hiccups along the way. Players with crappy decks that get worse as the game (life) progresses never get much past the Candy Cane, playing the victim and blaming the cards for their terrible luck. Shoot, imagine if other card games like poker, gin, blackjack, etc worked this way.
Candyland and Addiction
I believe in this final Candyland as life analogy: alcoholism, addiction, use disorder, and their synonyms actively work to stack the deck against you. The choices these engender favor stuckness. And once the composition of the deck we draw our cards from becomes deeply handicapped, recomposing the deck becomes an uphill battle. A battle that requires dogged persistence, determination, patience, compassion for yourself, assistance, and most importantly, time. The worse we make our personal deck, the harder life becomes and the harder it is to course correct.
Thanks for working through these strange thoughts with me over the last two blog posts. I’m still not sure if life and fate are predetermined by some higher power, but I am convinced that if it isn’t, life is predetermined by each of us. It is determined by our actions, choices, vices, and relationships. The better these are, the better the deck we draw from, and the happier and more fulfilling our lives become.
Better choices and creating a better set of circumstances is why I started this blog in the first place.
Okay, time to play some Candyland!
I have noticed even people who claim everything is predestined, and that we can do nothing to change it, look before they cross the road.
– Stephen Hawking
