Metaphorical randomness...

I have decided that life is like a giant game of telephone, with miscommunications galore and lots of laughs. Actually, many things are like games. Dating, for instance. In that particular game, no one knows the rules or understands the moves other players make. I don't think anyone ever does understand the rules to the dating game, but we'll be able to stop worrying about it once we get married. (At least, the kind of dating where you're trying to find the right person. I think spouses should still continue to date each other.)

I've also heard that love itself is a game, but that version of the saying isn't as accurate, in my opinion. Love is more complicated and it's harder to state in a metaphor. I like the quote that says the course of true love never did run smooth. It's from one of Shakespeare's plays, but I don't know which one. Anyway, love isn't really a game. And it probably is smooth sailing sometimes. Or maybe not. Life itself isn't easy, so why should love be unproblematic? Ah well.

Other things that are like games are conversations, tests, including the GRE, according to the prep class I'm taking, and probably a lot of other things. And I know that using "like" makes it a simile, but that's still a kind of metaphor. I still like the game of telephone analogy the best, though. To me it describes both the frustration that arises from miscommunications and the joy and laughter that we can generally find if we look for them and refuse to take ourselves too seriously. It makes life a lot more fun.

Finding time to be happy

I saw a quote once that said "It was a dark and stormy night, but I chose to ENJOY it!" I think it's a good policy. Life is filled with ups and downs and craziness. However, there is always sufficient time for that which matters most. For me, the most important things in life are church, family, friends, and education. Besides those, there is room for the smaller things which make life so much fun. We can and should find time for the non-essential things we like to do, like watching movies, going on walks, getting exercise, listening to music, dancing, laughing, reading really good books, and writing. It's these little things that make life enjoyable. And we are meant to find enjoyment and happiness in life. It's not supposed to be boring. As my professor taught on the first day of my world religions class, we should find enjoyment in learning and we should learn because we love it. For me, school is not something I want to get out of the way so I can move on with life. This, right here and right now, is my life and I want to enjoy it. Of course I have to do things I don't enjoy as much, but I can handle that because it's part of living and becoming a better person, I suppose. However, life is a gift and I think that it's my choice whether or not I enjoy each day. And by choosing to enjoy each day as it comes, I can find lasting happiness. It's not always easy, but considering that the alternative is unhappiness or a depression that I bring on myself, I like the first choice much more.

To life.

I was sitting by a fountain earlier and watching air bubbles float by. They were there and then gone, faster than I could keep track of. Some people might say that life is like that... there, then gone, with no real pattern, except the predictable ending when it all disappears. But human beings aren't air bubbles in a fountain. We live, we laugh, we love, we cry, we move on, we laugh again, and someday we die, but death isn't the end. We are eternal beings and our lives here and now do have meaning.
I've been thinking about life and death today because my teacher's wife died over the weekend. I suppose it doesn't really affect me, other than the canceled class, but it made me stop to wonder. I know that life goes on after death, but that doesn't always lessen the pain we feel when someone we love dies. One girl from class offered to find a card and a gift for our teacher, and it was amazing to see how many people contributed. It's so hard to know what else to do and it's really hard to feel happy about a canceled class under the circumstances. Still, life goes on.

As I walked across campus, I saw families riding bikes together and a couple eating lunch. Life hasn't stopped. It never will, really. We learn to move on after hard things happen. The sun doesn't stop shining, the wind won't stop blowing, and the sky is still blue. It's perfectly all right to grieve--in fact, it's good for us to take time to feel sadness or to share in someone else's sorrow, but then we can move on and find happiness again. Life is good.

Two of my favorite movies are Fiddler on the Roof and Life is Beautiful. Both are sad stories, but they don't focus on the sad parts. In fact, I'd say that they are the happiest movies I know, because of the way they face life and laugh in spite of all the difficulties. One of the songs from Fiddler on the Roof is "To Life!" which says something about how they have to take advantage of every opportunity to celebrate. Life itself is worth living and celebrating, because if we decided to be upset or saddened by every hard thing that happened, we'd never be happy. I'm glad for things that remind me to smile. Even when life is hard or doesn't make sense, we can still find happiness.