You would think a bar would not be the place to give birth to a lengthy metaphor, but the other day I found myself in labor with such a creative comparison. I was playing pool by myself and I thought, ‘hey, this is really quite like life itself: the setup, the playing, the victory and what happens afterwards…’. Allow me to whittle this little log of thought so you can grasp it smoothly in your mind’s hand.
From the beginning, we start, all the balls are racked neatly at the end of the table, whispering thousands of possibilities amongst themselves and finally the words become clearer when you ‘break’ and everything is scattered. Perhaps a few go in on the break, ok, so already much like in life, you may have been born with great parents or with a really great genetic trait, but even so, the game is not won yet. Your birth is much like the break, whereby all is opened up to you and the eventual path of your destiny is akin to the scattered placement of multicolored balls on the table—these are your shots to shoot, this is your potential. Since you are playing by yourself, there is no real opposition, but a duality which seeks to drive you in different directions with no consideration of the other side, as some desires do not mingle well with others. This is something we see all throughout our lives, whether it’s in bright lights or in shadows, we often play villain to our hero, we subtract when we are adding, and we find a way to challenge even the most basic of our own desires, because to be human is about adaptation, having a counter move to every move that comes about naturally.
So there you are at the table, the balls are spread throughout and now you are deciding what path you want to take. Not only do you see the ball you want to make into the pocket, you want to see the ball after it. In your mind, an alternate reality has already been created whereby you do every thing as you planned and maybe a few things you thought you couldn’t do but you managed to pull off any way. So when you go for your next shot, much like in life, you may not be thinking ahead at the time, maybe something has distracted you from your next move, so now the whole reality you had created is shattered and now you have a bunch of new possibilities and another sequence to follow to get to your goal. To make it even more confusing, you have people around you in the bar giving you tips and telling you how they think you should do it, but they can make their arguments and its up to you to decide if they are worthy and whether or not you are going to follow them.
Even when you know what you have to do, you still have to execute the shot and it’s therein that life plays tricks on you, be it circumstance or a slight hesitation on your part, but a shot that seems like a sure thing can be ruined very easily by a slight flaw in execution, just as in our own lives, we fail to notice small important details or don’t properly prepare for action when it is necessary. So when your cue ball goes more left then right, the perfect little plan you had just excuses itself quietly and walks out the door never to be seen again. So as we fail in life, we fail in the game, but just as in the game, we try to take note of what we did wrong when the shot was flawed, we try to see our own life and look at our own habits, perhaps our grip on reality is all wrong, maybe mentally we need a slight straightening of the arm and a twist of the wrist to find our destiny, ball by ball, because every shot is leading itself to the next, like all our experiences branching off one another in a fluidity that makes even water itself envious.
Minutes go by in the game, as years go by in your life and after many successes and failures, you arrive at that pivotal moment in the game: sinking the eight ball. So there you are by the table contemplating the shot, your pool cue warmed partially by your tensely gripped hand, which is itself thicker feeling from the chalk you’ve put on it over the course of the game. It’s at this point that you realize that winning itself doesn’t really matter, but the feeling afterwards,like a holy justification for some wicked obsession or a wide open field ahead of you when you’ve spent most of your travels in claustrophobia inspiring tunnels.
Let’s say this shot is like a test you have to pass to graduate, now you know it means everything, but at the same time, there is much in the world to distract you from whatever purpose one part of your brain may have created. So when you walk around the table to get the best angle on your shot, you see a very beautiful woman walk right by you and your brain is set on fire by the smell of her perfume. For a few seconds, the eight ball doesn’t exist and it’s only until she sits down with the meathead at the end of the bar who has been obnoxiously ordering drinks for most the night, do you finally turn your attention back to the shot at hand.
You have made a choice to shoot a certain way and in the back of your mind is the thought that you could very well miss this or make it in without a hitch, so already you go ahead in time and contemplate the defeat as well as the victory and these visions play themselves out in microseconds while you move the cue back and forth in a stroking motion. You shoot and at first is the sound of the cue vibrating from hitting the cue ball, then the click of the cue ball and eight ball colliding, and then finally the sweet gentle tap of the eight ball going into the corner pocket. Victory! You’re happy, but alas, the world hasn’t changed, but even so, you feel a little better then you did a few minutes ago. Another task has been accomplished and you think to yourself, what now? It’s then the meathead with the pretty girlfriend walks up and puts his quarters down on the pool table and says, “You play with yourself pretty good, now how about a real opponent?”
So there it is, much like life itself, games are meant to be played again and again because a new challenge or challenger always arises. I suppose the moral of the story is to plan your shots ahead as best you can but always be ready to see a new path when your old one is altered by circumstances beyond your power.
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