If Life is a Game, These Are the Rules by Cherie Carter Scott based on the 10 Rules of being human. It's a small book. I usually carry it around with me in one of my pockets or bags. It's chock full of good stuff on every page. Sometimes when I'm most puzzled I will just open the book and read the passage that my thumb is on. It usually is just what I need at that moment.

10 Rules of being Human

• YOU WILL RECEIVE A BODY. You may like it or hate it, but it will be yours for the entire period of this time around.
  
• YOU WILL LEARN LESSONS. You are enrolled in a full-time informal school called Life. Each day in this school you will have the opportunity to learn lessons. You may like the lessons or think them irrelevant and stupid.
  
• THERE ARE NO MISTAKES, ONLY LESSONS. Growth is a process of trial and error: Experimentation. The "failed" experiments are as much a part of the process as the experiment that ultimately "works."
  
• A LESSON IS REPEATED UNTIL LEARNED. A lesson will be presented to you in various forms until you have learned it. When you have learned it, you can then go on to the next lesson.
  
• LEARNING LESSONS DOES NOT END. There is no part of life that does not contain its lessons. If you are alive, there are lessons to be learned.
  
• "THERE" IS NO BETTER THAN "HERE." When your "there" has become a "here," you will simply obtain another "there" that will again look better than "here."
  
• OTHERS ARE MERELY MIRRORS OF YOU. You cannot love or hate something about another person unless it reflects something you love or hate about yourself.
  
• WHAT YOU MAKE OF YOUR LIFE IS UP TO YOU. You have all the tools and resources you need. What you do with them is up to you. The choice is yours.
  
• YOUR ANSWERS LIE INSIDE YOU. The answers to life's questions lie inside you. All you need to do is look, listen, and trust.
  
• YOU WILL FORGET ALL THIS.

Right on Cynthetiq -- that is exactly what I think the game of life is all about. As for winners -- we all have the ability to win!

If life is a game, I couldn't tell you for a fact what the rules are. But I know what the prize is: memories. They're really the only thing that you get to keep all your life. And good memories -- even painful ones, if they teach -- are priceless. Strive to make the best memories you can, every day.

Life is a game.

Victory conditions include happiness, minimal regrets, being able to sleep with a clear conscience, satisfaction.

I consider myself to be winning simply because I can face each day, I can go to sleep not dreading the sunrise.

Then again, I also see life as a Team Sport, and my team (wife, kids, family) deserves more credit than I for the victory.

bermuDa - beautifully put.

Charades sounds about right to me.

Life a game? duh who wins? the one who changes society more noticably

Life a game?
If I were to look at it, I would say it's several games.
The game you play and the rules to that game depend on your belief (the game you choose to play).
As far as who wins, once again, depending on what game you play will determine who gets to win.

Are you happy? if you are then you are winning the game. No rules, no cheating, just life. Don't try to understand it because you can only lose the joy of discovery.


I'm happy..... I guess I won!

I don't know if it's a game, with so many different answers, and questions that should be answered right off. What kind of game doesn't come with a manual of any kind? Well, I always get picked last anyway, so I'll just hang back and watch :p.

The Meaning of Life
 

I believe the meaning of life is to reproduce, so the species can continue to populate the planet forever (well until the sun/earth explodes). Think about it...sex is on a guys mind all day long, it drives u to do stupid things, it feels so good, it is many people's main goal in life to get laid when they are young etc etc

What do you believe the meaning of life to be?

the old equation gave an answer of 42.

The new equation has a result that is a little less rational, the sq rt of 3.

slimshaydee - so anyone who can't reproduce, or doesn't want to, has an essentially meaningless life and should top themselves?

;)

42 is the correct answer, but no one's found the right question yet!

I'll let you know the answer once I finish reading Venus in a Half Shell.

What species? We control a lot of species from reproducing - even destroyed some as well. So you must be speaking of humans. Uncontrolled reproduction leads to over population, which you surely can't say is a good thing. Personally , I don't see humankind lasting until the sun/earth explode.
It's on the mind of all types of guys and girls - good intentions and bad. These stupid things that you speak of include a pedophile. You say that it's many peoples main goal in life to get laid when they are young - true, it is. But how much value do I take some 14 year old? Not much. I'd rather talk to someone who has had the experience of being in love over someone who just wants to get laid.
My belief is we should better ourselves as people.

To me life is the continual pursuit of knowledge.

what happens to this knowledge when one dies? Not all of it is put into books and stuff. So is this a wasted life?

This is something that is present because of the way we think.
We think in terms of things having a "meaning" to us.
But that's a totally circular situation.

Things don't come with labels or meanings attached.
We make them up ourselves and impose them on things.

The knowledge one gains is used to shape the conditions that we exist in. Some people contribute to a change for the better while others tend to gravitate to de-evolution. In one way or another everyone, whether meaning to or not, has an affect on things to come. The effect of the majority is not spectacular and in most instances will never be publically noticed. These effects will in turn alter the conditions of those proceeding them.

You have establish a valid point there, but what does this mean for animals, does this mean that every animal life is worthless?

So you are saying that animals do not learn?
I'm sure that a banana was not the first meal of the first group of gorillas. They inevitable tried eating different things and then one came upon the banana and enjoyed it. He might have then brought some to the rest of the pack or they witnessed him eating it and saw that it was favorable. (both of these are hypothetical) My point is that gorillas where then able to remember that the banana was a good food to eat and as they produced offspring this knowledge was passed down to them. Not all knowledge has to be learned verbally or textually. I used the gorilla only as an example but this would apply to all animals. Knowledge coupled with evolution is what allows them to survive. Whether it be selection of food sources or a hospitable place to live most animals use the knowledge of the known that they are able to acquire from those before them. If there is an unknown then experimentation will inevitably take place giving that creature further knowledge that can then be passed on.

The meaning of life is to keep learning. Thats what i reckon anyway. Either that or 42.

The meaning of life is to improve one's spiritual nature. Essentially to become enlightened. If you believe in reincarnation, as I do, then each lesson in life is a step toward becoming fully concious. Book knowledge will help you with day to day living, but ultimiately spiritual growth will be the most beneficial.

The question and answer do both exist, but cant exist in the same reality.

Wow that was deep. Or something.

Uh, the meaning of life is to just enjoy it. If you find a cure for halitosis/cancer/whatever along the way thats just bonus.

Personally, I like Monty Python's "Meaning of Life"

I agree with ART.

Things are just kind of there. Meanings and symbols are what we make in order to cope.

well.. even the good book says "be fruitful and multiply". ;)

does that mean i think the meaning of life is to reproduce? nah..

i actually have quite a deep idea of what the meaning of life is... but i don't have enough time nor space to explain it here... if you'd like to hear about it.. i'd be happy to explain it through PMs.

Life is without any inherant meaning or value.

Problem is, we think that that means something. So we either get all despairing about it, or we scramble around trying to invent some meaning that we can latch onto as The Truth. Neither of which is an appropriate response for meaninglessness, as they're both expressions of the meaning that we invent.

ratbastid, clear, concise, and to the point.
that's how it is...
thanks.

*Ev'ry Sperm is Sacred.....

I'll sing that for a while and think about it. Personally, i don't know if its so much about some sense of abstract meaning, as doing the best that one can with what you've got. If community is available to you...join in. If love is possible, strive for it. If doing something that helps another is something you can do...go on and do it.

The witty and short form answer is copped from one of my favorite lines of scripture:
"Love tenderly, act justly, and walk humbly with your God."
-Micah 6:8