Playground

by Richard Powers

Add that to your table of definitions for what it means to be a human being. We make things that we hope will be bigger than us, and then we’re desolate when that’s what they become.

But my father had told me once that a man’s worth was measured by how much money other people were willing to let him lose.

And a corollary: the strength of a man’s character was measured by how much he was willing to lose on others’ behalf.

We humans are built to compete, built to spout opinions, built to seek prestige and shiny, built to watch our accounts and ratings grow, built to impress our friends and vanquish our enemies. Or maybe we’re just built to play.

“If two choices are impossible to choose between, it means they have equal merit. Either choice can have your belief. It doesn’t matter which you choose. You shed one chooser and grow into another.”