Cosmic Chess

I learned to play chess when I was a young teenager. Every afternoon when I got home from school, a friend would stop by my house and we would play chess.

I mention this daily chess game because I've come to believe that we humans are also involved in a kind of chess game during our lifetimes on earth. Except, we aren't the players. We are the chess pieces. We are the kings and queens and bishops and knights and rooks. And mostly, just as on a chessboard, we are the pawns. 

Our ethereal chessmasters pluck us from our current position and plop us down into another square on the board. It happens all the time. You're in an automobile wreck. Your house catches fire. Your friend gets sick and dies. You win a lottery. You discover your spouse is cheating on you. You're sent to a battle zone. You make a new friend. Your bus rolls over on a curve. You get a deadly cancer. On and on and on. 

We don't control where on the chessboard the cosmic chessmaster places us. All we control is our reaction to our new situation. Is it anger? Is it depression? Is it hopelessness? Is it acceptance? Is it forgiveness?

The more games we play, the better we become at playing this cosmic chess. If you keep your eyes and ears tuned for it, you can pick up clues from others who have gone a little further than you have gone. You may not get answers, but you can get clues—pointers—to where the answers may be found. In the meanwhile, as you search for answers to difficult questions, your best guide might be found in the Golden Rule: “Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.”