Life is often described and even understood as a race.A race usually to the top or the finish? Or a race just to survive the moment of existence? If it is a race, there must be a finishing point and everyone knows where that point is. It is the grave. Then this must be a race no one should be eager to win by being the first to touch the finishing tape beating all other contestants. Yet everyone seems to be singlemindedly trying to be the first at the finishing post. Is it not a cotradiction of terms when one boasts that he has won life's race ?

I like to see life as a game - preferably a card game,poker if you like.You have no control on the hand you get.But what really matters is the way you play.Some get a bad hand ,some others a good one;some lose ,others win but all enjoy the game.It is the luckiest ones that get a good hand and play well;they belong to the charmed circle. The less lucky are those who get a bad hand but still play a fine game. The really unfortunate are those that get a hopeless hand and also play miserably. They are just above the really damned - the poor souls who were dealt a good hand but lost all by playing like idiots.