Friday, February 14, 2025
Sometimes I feel like life is a game of solo chess. After you make your move with the white pieces, the board flips, and you make your move with the black pieces – playing against the strategies of your former self.
Who is the phantom menace in this “friendly” game – when you’re playing offense and defense? You’re privy to both sides, but the phantom enemy beats you. This is what allows us to “forget” our goals, lie to ourselves, or deny ourselves or make ourselves laugh. This disguise seems to move in and out of the shadows, lurking as something other than ourselves.
This image of playing chess against yourself reminds us how we harm ourselves, set ourselves up, or let ourselves down. We forget we’re playing cause and effect. We’re playing helper and helpless – victim and victor. We’re playing poor and rich. We’re playing offense and defense in the same ways we would play black and white in solo chess. The board flips and we forget. Now we have a shadowy opponent playing on the other side of the board. Most don’t recognize this phantom menace as themselves. I want to remove the mask, like in a Scooby Doo cartoon!
The fact that we can play chess with ourselves is important because then we can recover from “gotcha” moments. That’s what happens when we suffer. We forget our actions, inactions, or thoughts caused the pain. We forget our causes have effects. We forget that we spent the money, married the loser, took the crappy job, etc. We forget we are both spender and earner; alpha and omega; and friend and enemy. Try to remember who the phantom menace is. The so-called “other player” is also you! I’d be cautious before I called “checkmate” against myself.