INTERNET GRANDFATHER®

Variety

                                        I recently read Brent Manley's The Tao of Bridge. It teaches the application of the principles of the game of bridge to everyday life. I've previously looked to golf for guidance in how to live life and now that I've read this book I see that another of my favorite games also has lessons for life. I plan to turn to this book periodically for ideas but for today I'm focusing on the author's first principle: "Enjoy the endless variety of bridge." He means that the endless variety of hands should be a source of pleasure in playing bridge and, implicitly, in life.

                                                  Variety is diversity of things, differences in our daily lives. While an old adage holds that variety is the spice of life, many people are uncomfortable with variety. While some of us welcome diversity, welcome the richness of diversity, love to have choices, others resist variety, dislike the choices that diversity requires.

                                                  Choices require us to make decisions we become responsible for. Those who fear choices would rather not make decisions, would rather look to predictability, to those things that don't change, for their pleasure. They like to count on the same thing every day. They  resist variety. I find the lack of variety grey and dull; seeing the same things every day, not having choices, is a frightening prospect to me. Welcoming variety as enriching, finding endless variety, such as in bridge, is exciting. To have choices is a wonderful thing. One of my biggest fears is the narrowing that seems too often to come with aging, losing choices in every-day life.

                                                   Welcome variety,  welcome ever-changing surroundings,  ever-changing lives. Enjoy making choices. Enjoy taking responsibility for your choices. Don't seek a dull, grey life and don't blame others if you make bad choices. In the long run, you'll be the better for it.

 6-18-07