Settling for Inaction

Hello world!

Question: when's the last time you played a board game? 

If your answer involves Candyland, that's just too bad.  Board games are awesome distractions for kids, but they seem less and less enticing as we get older (and wiser?).  I guess some adults do like chess though, right?  But I got turned off to that one at an early age; my older brother is a bit of a prodigy, and I was dragged to tournaments as a kid.  Having to be silent in a room full of creepy men gets old fast when you're a bubbly seven-year-old girl.  Seriously. 

But I digress.  I'm asking in order to lead seamlessly into mentioning the game Settlers of Catan.  I was introduced to it a year or so ago, and I've found it an awesome way to pass a few hours with two to five friends.  (It would be more awesome if I weren't so cutthroat.  I tend to get really, really pissed at other players during heated battles over the longest road card.) 

During one memorable five-player game, a friend was lost in thought on his turn.  (We call that "winning the longest turn card" [read: taking forever to make a move].)  We decided that he must have an elaborate scheme in mind.  He assured us otherwise with one of the wisest lines I've ever heard: "Do not mistake inaction for contemplation."

Genius.

I was reflecting on that difference this afternoon during an eleventh step meeting.  The leader picked a reading from the 12&12 involving the difference between determining God's will by yourself and checking in with others before you act on a thought or situation.  (Disclaimer: I was raised staunchly atheist and never refer to my higher power as "God" except when shorthand is necessary.)  The discussion following the reading wandered a bit from there, and it ended up being very insightful for me.

More than anything else, I got a renewed feeling of acceptance out of the meeting.  I think that we value action over contemplation as a general rule.  Conjure up some dictionary of inspirational quotes, and you'll surely find that doing tends to be high-fived over thinking.  Absolutely no citation there, but you get my point.  We have this assumption that there is always something that can be done about those obstacles we face.

But I need to be reminded more that there are situations in which I'm completely powerless.  I need to be reminded not so much that I can change certain situations as that I cannot change others.  I need to stop valuing action over contemplation.  And I cannot mistake powerlessness for uselessness.  There are times when thinking and not doing is far more admirable than vice versa.

[side note: I took a break from blogging yesterday to clean my room.  I felt compelled to read today's entry from the Daily Reflections book for no particular reason--I never read it!  And the topic was exactly what I'm writing about...coincidence?]

I'll leave you with a quote from my favorite story in the Big Book, "Acceptance was the Answer":

"[...A]cceptance is the answer to all my problems today.  When I am disturbed, it is because I find some person, place, thing, or situation--some fact of my life--unacceptable to me, and I can find no serenity until I accept that person, place, thing or situation as being exactly the way it is supposed to be at that moment.  Nothing, absolutely nothing, happens in God's world by mistake.  [...] I need to concentrate not so much on what needs to be changed in the world as on what needs to be changed in me and in my attitudes."

Take care!