Food For Thought

The world is a pretty wild place right now. A lot of our lives have been turned upside down by the current crisis and the future uncertainty we face feels daunting, but you don't need to view this uncertainty as a negative. You can view it as an opportunity, because there probably is one, hiding somewhere in plain sight. I'd like to illustrate this concept with a story someone near and dear to me told me a long time ago.

Long ago there was a place where people were born into captivity like zoo animals. Families were Kaotically ripped apart by a ruling class of elites and for their entertainment, they would offer up slaves to play tumultuous games for their freedom. One slave boy, in particular, was offered his freedom if he could beat a grandmaster in the game of chess. Although the young boy had an "iron memory" and could memorize complex patterns, he had no education and had never played chess in his life. He was given a week to prepare. As much as he practiced he never improved and all the other slaves told him he only had two options, play the game and embarrass himself or surrender and hope his submission would delight the elites enough that they would be lenient on him for the remainder of his life in servitude.

The day of the match came and the boy looked confident. As he stepped on to the stage he asked the elites how many grandmasters were in attendance. They said 9. He asked if he could face all of them at the same time and if he could beat at least 3 of them he would earn his freedom. If not he would be put to death. The elites laughed hysterically and obliged his offer with bloodlust in their hearts. The matches began and within a couple moves the grandmasters began sweating. One by one he was taking their pieces off the board and even the masters that had the upper hand were astonished by his skill and performance. As the tense evening wore on and the last piece was claimed the boy had beaten 6 grandmasters. The elites who were both frightened and enraged honored their agreement and let the boy go. He became a legend in his own right, but for decades people would play chess against him and beat him handily. He never got better but for some reason, on that one day, he played at the level of a grandmaster. Everyone was obsessed with finding out this mystery. On his deathbed, his son begged him to tell him his secret. He looked at his son and said, "They weren't playing against me. My iron memory had them playing against each other."

Whenever you have a problem that feels larger than life, it usually isn't. It's likely not that the problem is unsolvable, it's that you're thinking inside the rules of the game. The only rules in the real world are the ones we can imagine.

Food for thought.