Mastery of the Game of Life

By Rev. Amari Magdalena

What if this [sic: life] is really a board game like Monopoly and some own Boardwalk and Park Place and others do not pass Go and are sent directly to jail without collecting their monthly stipend?  Wouldn’t it all seem almost laughable?  Yes, I know, for some it is their very reality and not funny at all.  I’m making a point here and that is that so much of the drama, judgments, emotional roller coasters etc. in life are part of the game.  True some rides are better than others.

Had I not had the following experience after my harsh, autocratic step-father’s passing, I might have missed an important lesson in life.  After he passed, I had a vision.  In this dream-like state, I saw that my life was a movie or play with characters and a casting coach.  The lesson to be learned was about taking my own power.  Souls in my group of actors gathered.  Each was to play a role.  When the casting coach asked for those characters who were willing to play the ‘bad guys,’ my incarnate step-father stepped forward.  Ours was a very close bond in the ethers, it seemed, thus he was willing to risk being intensely disliked or hated, at times, in the material dream world. He knew at a soul level we were always OK.

This was a very illuminating experience because it helped me see his mastery.  Had I been raised by my own father, I believe I’ve have been an adored princess, the apple of my father’s eye.  Would that have lead me to rebel and move towards independence?  I doubt it.  I’d have been too complacent and contented to want to sever ties.  With my difficult step-father, it was easy to want to get the hell away and as far as I could, as soon as I could.

I share this with you to make an important point.  Many of us are unhappy and beyond frustrated with our current White House occupant, Donald J. Trump.  He makes it so easy for us to loathe, hate, denigrate, and eschew his actions and rhetoric each and every day.  Most of us are sick of seeing him and hearing from him. We’d like him gone and the sooner the better.  My hands up for the vote; many of yours are too.

Wait, have we missed something here?  What if DJT is a Master who made a soul agreement to play a vile role in awakening people in this country to what is truly important?  What if his exaggerated gesticulations, relentless tweets, proposed laws of prejudice and class separation, sociopathic and narcissistic antics are simply messages from spirit to wake us the hell up?  What if we needed such a jolt to slay our collective complacency into actions for fostering and preserving our freedoms?

This is not the first, nor probably the last, time in history when a repugnant influencer changed the course of history ultimately for the good.  By the very depth of their deviance from what most consider humanitarian precepts, didn’t all of the lot ultimately succeed in helping people wake up. 

In my lifetime, I am reminded of 13 history changing ‘bad guys:’ Adolph Hitler; Joseph Stalin; Pol Pot; Kim II Jung; Vladimir Lenin; Saddam Hussein; Mao Zedong; Enver Pasha, Ho Chi Minh, Yahya Kahn, Tojo Hideki; Chiang Kai-Shek; Hirohito who killed a conservative estimate of 172 million people.  And there are noteworthy others.  All did an inestimable amount of damage to the human condition.

What lessons were learned from their evil intentions and tenure?  The answer, hue and cry for humanitarianism along with reforms to prevent massive deaths and prejudicial treatment of various targeted populations.  As we watch an unfolding drama of rising hatred and prejudice and severally divisive politics, we are witnessing a picture so bleak that most of us are alarmed.  In our alarm, we are mobilizing, taking actions, hosting salons of discussion, planning for an end to the ugly portraiture that is before us every day in the media keeping us hyper alert. In others word, we are beginning to feel really awake.

Perhaps the ebb and flow of our own lives and history are simply waves or graphs of evolution and devolution which present choices to each of us daily to be truly conscious.  I posit that when we are consciously living, each and every day, we move into our soul’s work of ascension. We look in the reflection of the mirror each day and decide what kind of character we want to play in the Game of Life.  That truth look, helps us master the game.

So, perhaps, we might send ‘thank you’ notes to DJT as we remind him that we are on to his role in the game now and admonish him to not let the door hit him on the way out!

"Once the game is over, the King and the Pawn go back in the same box."  Italian proverb

  "I've come to realize that life is neither a battle nor a game to be won, it is a game nonetheless, but to be played..enjoyed.  There are neither winners nor losers...just players--and what's great is that you can choose who to play with."  Val Uchendu