Friday, November 15, 2024
To have skin in the game is to have incurred risk by being involved in achieving a goal, meaning you have invested something or that you have something to lose. I just don’t think we have anything to lose because we haven’t anything to gain.
What do you have to lose in life? Is there anything of real value and substance at stake? I came here with nothing, naked as a child, and I’ll leave here with nothing, naked as a dead body. If there is nothing to win, then there can be nothing to lose. I have no skin in the game. But I’m still here, in the game, so now what?
The outcome seems to not matter. The primary objective is sportsmanship – how well we played with others; how well we played with variables and challenges; and how well we played the game as ourselves. Do we play for blood? The choice seems obvious, but we still play dirty from time to time. That’s alright, some of us haven’t realized the no-stakes game.
You don’t need to play to win. You can simply play for sport. You can be glad when your “opponent” is happy. You can be glad not to be included. You can be glad to be alone. You can be glad to be where you are, even if progress seems illusive. You’re playing a game with no stakes, so why not focus on being lighthearted?
This way of thinking has helped me. I participate, but I don’t lose myself in the illusion of stakes. There is nothing at stake. Even if you lose your life, you haven’t lost a thing. Life isn’t yours to possess in the first place.