Interlude 1: Interludes
An interlude is that period between two games, or two parts of a game. In modern times (especially when watching Arsenal beat Hamburg SV 3-1), the phrase 'half-time break' comes to mind. As I move through this world, I notice in particular two kinds of people who are blind with respect to games: those who know there is a game, but are playing the wrong game (or do not know which game is being played); those who do not recognize that there is a game, or who are convinced that there is no game.
The word 'game' itself has come to describe something not to be taken seriously or in earnest. It has met a similar fate to 'trivia'. In the latter case, 'trivia' referred to the three ways (tri + via) of mastering reason through language - grammar, logic and rhetoric. This trinity was called, as a whole, the Trivium.
Back to 'interlude'. The Latin word 'ludens' means 'playing' - Huizinga's homo ludens means '(game)-playing man', just as homo sapiens means 'intelligence-using man'. I was once speaking with a rich young man who was an heir to a large fortune. I asked him why he wanted to make more money. He replied, "Money is just a point-scoring device in human society. Although you can use it for many things, one major use people don't get is its use in establishing a pecking order."
That was just before I wiped him out in a friendly poker game (not something I'm extremely proud of, but it was fun, and this post is about games after all). We played a lot of bridge at penny-a-point in those days, too. But while all this was going on, the ongoing conversation on money and games in general became very interesting. The question behind it all was, "What is the game of life all about?"
It isn't a new question. Paul of Tarsus used to routinely compare the Christian life to boxing, wrestling, and foot-racing. A selective analysis of his theological writings would show a person whom you might suspect of being a secret jock, with his obvious interest in Olympic events.
And so, with all the gaming analogies and metaphors put on the board, it has become easy to think of life as a trivial pursuit, or as not a game at all, or as nothing but a game. As the song says, "You've got to know when to hold them, know when to fold them, know when to walk away, know when to run..."
But life isn't quite so simple. Life is a game for the highest stakes of all - the quest for meaning. It is in the game of life that we discover life's meaning. Whether atheist or agnostic, sinner or saint, pantheist or polytheist, if meaning is not discovered by the time the timer runs out, then life has been wasted, and it is 'Game Over'.
This is why we should never give in to the meaningless or the mindless. To do work which your hand finds to do, with all your might, presupposes that it is work - that it is the directed use of energy towards a specific goal. For the quantity that is not-work is heat - the random distribution of energy towards no particular goal. Sometimes, much heat is generated without real work being done. This is what we must resist.
But what differentiates heat from work? The key point is information. Unless we have information, we cannot tell if there is a goal or a direction or a guiding consciousness. Then all work might as well be heat. Information is what we make of data, what our conscious and intelligent minds (or what we think of as our minds) do with our apprehension of the universe. We work towards comprehension, we strive to make meaning. This is what makes us human.
In the end, life will fail us in at least one sense. We will die, and information will be lost. This is mortality. We might fail in another sense, in making incorrect though well-meant use of information. This is fallibility. And we can be hurt by information, because we have feelings and weaknesses. This is vulnerability. But none of these failings takes away from us the quest for meaning, and what we stand to gain from it. For we are not only sapiens, but ludens - and we have been given the greatest game of all to play.
The word 'game' itself has come to describe something not to be taken seriously or in earnest. It has met a similar fate to 'trivia'. In the latter case, 'trivia' referred to the three ways (tri + via) of mastering reason through language - grammar, logic and rhetoric. This trinity was called, as a whole, the Trivium.
Back to 'interlude'. The Latin word 'ludens' means 'playing' - Huizinga's homo ludens means '(game)-playing man', just as homo sapiens means 'intelligence-using man'. I was once speaking with a rich young man who was an heir to a large fortune. I asked him why he wanted to make more money. He replied, "Money is just a point-scoring device in human society. Although you can use it for many things, one major use people don't get is its use in establishing a pecking order."
That was just before I wiped him out in a friendly poker game (not something I'm extremely proud of, but it was fun, and this post is about games after all). We played a lot of bridge at penny-a-point in those days, too. But while all this was going on, the ongoing conversation on money and games in general became very interesting. The question behind it all was, "What is the game of life all about?"
It isn't a new question. Paul of Tarsus used to routinely compare the Christian life to boxing, wrestling, and foot-racing. A selective analysis of his theological writings would show a person whom you might suspect of being a secret jock, with his obvious interest in Olympic events.
And so, with all the gaming analogies and metaphors put on the board, it has become easy to think of life as a trivial pursuit, or as not a game at all, or as nothing but a game. As the song says, "You've got to know when to hold them, know when to fold them, know when to walk away, know when to run..."
But life isn't quite so simple. Life is a game for the highest stakes of all - the quest for meaning. It is in the game of life that we discover life's meaning. Whether atheist or agnostic, sinner or saint, pantheist or polytheist, if meaning is not discovered by the time the timer runs out, then life has been wasted, and it is 'Game Over'.
This is why we should never give in to the meaningless or the mindless. To do work which your hand finds to do, with all your might, presupposes that it is work - that it is the directed use of energy towards a specific goal. For the quantity that is not-work is heat - the random distribution of energy towards no particular goal. Sometimes, much heat is generated without real work being done. This is what we must resist.
But what differentiates heat from work? The key point is information. Unless we have information, we cannot tell if there is a goal or a direction or a guiding consciousness. Then all work might as well be heat. Information is what we make of data, what our conscious and intelligent minds (or what we think of as our minds) do with our apprehension of the universe. We work towards comprehension, we strive to make meaning. This is what makes us human.
In the end, life will fail us in at least one sense. We will die, and information will be lost. This is mortality. We might fail in another sense, in making incorrect though well-meant use of information. This is fallibility. And we can be hurt by information, because we have feelings and weaknesses. This is vulnerability. But none of these failings takes away from us the quest for meaning, and what we stand to gain from it. For we are not only sapiens, but ludens - and we have been given the greatest game of all to play.
etched with acid at 1:34:00 pm
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