❄️ Freezethawed: The Newsletter #012 - The game of life: being serious vs being sincere

Hello everyone!

In the beginning of the week I came across this piece of life advice on the Not Overthinking podcast which I’ve been itching to share with you all.

I still have not wrapped my head around it so I’ll just paraphrase what I heard. It can be best described as a ‘framing of life’ statement, which was first lifted from Twitter (where else, right?). So here goes, for whatever it's worth.

‘Life is like a game and there are two modes of playing this game.You can play the game seriously or you can play the game sincerely.

If you play the game with someone who takes it too seriously, they sometimes forget that it is a game – and we all know what it is like to play with someone who takes a game too seriously.

It is much nicer to play it with someone who plays it sincerely, that is, they are giving it their all but still recognise that it is still a game.’

We make take a part of life with utmost seriousness, often overlooking the sincerity aspect.

Alan Watts aptly frames this as:

“The universe is eternally playing hide and seek with you. Trying to reveal itself to you.
To realize that it’s all a game, but still play the game sincerely (as opposed to seriously) while not giving the game away is what is meant by living.”

This is something I am still trying to grasp and would love to hear your thoughts on the same. Write to me at contact@anujeetpaul.com and I’ll share your views too in my upcoming newsletter.

Until next time,

Anujeet.

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