A younger couple is sitting across from each other playing chess in a coffee shop I am at the other morning. The chess pieces seem scattered across the board as if there were just there for decoration, but knowing chess, each piece was put on each square for a reason.
The couple doesn't talk. They don't look at each other. The girl with dark hair pulled in to a pony-tail wearing sharp thick rimmed stylish glasses rests her chin on her cupped hand. The guy is wearing one of those hats you see old men wearing, with a thick brim and flat form and has arms crossed. His left hand is over his right arm.
The man pushes a piece with a horse head with the tip of his finger. He rests back in his chair crosses his arms again and smiles. The girl shakes her head and smiles.
"Again!"
"Again..." He says back laughing.
"I'm never going to beat you." She says as she starts packing the pieces back in to a box.
"It's all strategy, babe." The man says as he laughs and puts his coat on. "You'll get it."
The woman just shrugs looking disappointed. And for a second I am with her. I'm exactly in that shrug.
Strategy. It's in the games we play. It's in the arguments we have in order for people to see our side. It's in the way we live our lives. We've got the rules and that's it. How we go about succeeding is up to how we play and most of us play it to win it. Everyday is just another day to attempt to go for the gold... get that job or meet the one or finish that book we are writing or just finding something that makes us happy.
Sometimes we totally win and walk away with a smile telling others they will one day get it. Checkmate.
Some of us, though, are still trying to figure it all out.