Accumulating Life-points
A counter-intuitive approach to living a good life
Imagine life as a game. A game with levels, where you have to accumulate a certain amount of points to go on to the next stage.
In this game, you don’t control how many survival chances you get, that doesn’t depend on you. In this game you only win if you have lived a good life, but also you’re not the judge of that, the other people playing the game are. In other words, other players can down-vote you, even vote to have you eliminated.
The game begins when you’re born, but you don’t begin playing until you’re old enough to make your own decisions, say at 4 or 5 years of age. Then you begin playing.
You realize that it’s a fun game to play with friends, since you get their advice and opinion on how they navigate some levels. You also share with them some of the knowledge that has enabled you ace the game thus far. This is a valuable lesson, about learning to associate with others and valuing friendships.
As you go through school, and meet new people, some of whom stay in your life and some of whom don’t, you keep accumulating points, and pass onto the next levels.
Some times you will lose points too, like when you stole a pencil from a boy at school while he wasn’t looking. You thought the game was unfair for punishing you for something you thought to be so little. Or maybe the lesson was to not take anything for granted.
As you meet different players, especially those that have played the game longer than you, you can’t help but compare their scores to yours.
You notice that some players have very high scores. They have clearly played extremely well. While others, old as they are, have very low scores. You meet those that have lost so many points from single errors that though they have been playing the game for over 30 years, it’s as if they began playing only yesterday. Some have violated very important rules of the game that their score boards are locked. They have stopped scoring points all together.
The essence of the game lies in your actions. This you suspected, but recently confirmed it from one of the successful old-timers. Actions of kindness, selflessness, empathy, truthfulness, and love award a lot of points, while bad actions award few points, even deductions.
You have met people who don’t see the whole point of playing the game and have decided to quit the game. Others are still enjoying the game when suddenly their avatar just powers down and they can’t go on playing. For others, there’s a glitch in the game, maybe it’s a virus, but whatever it is — they can still play, though the quality of their game suffers and they don’t enjoy the game any more. Of these, some choose to continue playing and others choose to quit.
You have now played the game for a while, but are not certain how well you’re playing. You already know that how well you play the game is not so much about you and the trophies you get, but it’s about other players too. It’s about motivating others who had lost interest in the game or abandoned their mission, to continue playing, and most importantly, to play well.
You have since learned that even the players at the top of the leaderboard don’t understand all the controls of the game. They’re figuring it out as they go.
Like the others, you’ve been wondering what happens when you finish the game. No one is known to have accomplished this. You only know those who, for some reason, have finished playing.
Those who stop playing, but have played very well, leave a legacy. Their achievements are displayed on the leaderboard, as well as their techniques, the different elements of the game they unlocked, and most importantly, what made them tick.
When you think about the reasons why you’re playing the game, you know for sure that you want to be on the leaderboard too. You want to accumulate as many life-points that future generations can look up to you and learn from you.
You also want to leave a legacy. You want to win, that’s the point of the game.
