Wordle II

 This little game has become a significant part of my life. I use it as a carrot to get my morning duties accomplished. Most often it has been a positive way to begin the day. Sometimes, it also gets the adrenaline flowing when that sixth empty row of chances shows up and I begin to chew mental nails.

I’ve noticed a penchant for wanting to ask other players what their statistics are—games played, percentage solved, winning streak. And please note, this is NOT a request that you share your statistics here! Please DON’T!

As I have thought about why I should not, it occurred to me that this is not a competition with other people. It is a competition with myself, an effort to exercise my brain for a few minutes every day. (As if figuring out genealogical puzzles of much more significance in the eternal scheme of things doesn’t stress it enough already!!!)

Each of us is an eternal individual, with unique characteristics. These include both innate strengths and weaknesses as well as differences in the kind of nurture we’ve received. Because of those almost limitless variables, is it at all useful to compare ourselves to anyone else? Similarly, we are powerless to judge another individual since we do not know all the “befores” of their lives.

No, this daily game struggle is against my own brain’s ability to analyze and postulate. And my mortal lifelong struggle is to make the very best person I can out of the material I brought with me as well as the refining my life’s experiences and choices have exerted on it.

In the final analysis, I guess my father had it right on a basic level. He told me as a fledgling teenager that the purpose of life is to leave the world a better place than it was when you entered it. If we leave a “bettered” person ourselves, that is one thing. If we have been able to contribute to the “bettering” of the people around us, that is even more worthy of rejoicing. 

I am ever so grateful that the final evaluation will be done by One who knows us intimately—the befores and the afters and the inbetweens. On behalf of all of us, I hope for a good journey through our allotted span and satisfaction in our final destination. May we play each day’s hand as well as we are able and leave the statistics to the Master.