Know when to Hold 'em.

I've played Texas Hold 'em quite a bit. It's definitely interesting to think about how it reflects the real world and the Everyday. I think it reflects the real world in that its about luck combined with skill. In our lives, there is only so much we can control, with the rest being random chance. Another way this game reflects life is the extremes it represents... the all or nothing. I'm sure we've all heard the expression "you play the hand you're dealt in life". Depending on your upbringing, the resources available, your life experience and so-on, you develop into an individual that has certain characteristics and abilities and lacks others. At the end, some people accomplish all that they wanted while others never even got a legitimate shot.

I think Hold 'em represents the Everyday in that, after you play the game enough, you tend not to pay attention to certain things (aspects of the game/strategies) and they turn into a dull roar that you only notice on occasion. You get so used to the game, in other words, that you start to do things and/or make decisions intuitively.. much like the Everyday tasks that no one ever really thinks about.

Dan

Slide Show :)

Interesting quote from "The Everyday"

I liked these quotes in conjunction with one-another:

"..., let us consider the everday as without a truth proper to itself: our move then will be to seek to make it participate in the diverse figures of the True, in the great historical transformations, in the becoming of what occurs either below (economic and technical change) or above (philosophy, poetry, politics)." (Johnstone, p. 35)

".. the everyday loses any power to reach us, it is no longer what is lived, but what can be seen or what shows itself... What good is taking part in a street demonstration, since at the same moment, secure and at rest, we are at the demonstration itself, thanks to a television set? ... Substituted for practice is the pseudo-acquaintance of an irresponsible gaze; substituted for the movement of the concept - a task and a work - is the diversion of a superficial, uncaring and satisfied contemplation. Man, well protected within the four walls of his familial existence, lets the world come to him without peril, certain of being in no way changed by what he sees and hears." (Johnstone, p. 37)

I found these quotes to be an adequate outline of the current American capacity to to be content in the face of such worldly turmoil. Despite wars, genocide attempts, mass poverty and starvation, human rights inequity, etc., I feel that the average American is so bound to their everyday that they use it as an escape, or even an excuse, not to care about issues. It seems that the knowledge of "I have it good" makes one focus internally and, at best, externally in looking at the present and future that are only within acceptable, easy mental-striking-distance.

Professor Kochis once gave a lecture about his concern that The American is becomming ever more uninvolved, not directly as a by-product of apathy, but as a result of never having to maneuver one's self socially to acquire an acceptable life standard. In other words, we (the newest generation and possibly the one before us) never experienced what tyranny and poverty
were like. We grew up in a system that had already been through its accentric adolescence and were able to develop (grow up) with an accessable social structure and extensive resources readily available. We never "had to fight for what we got" in that sense. This inherent social laziness that we have become accustomed to prohibits us from acting.

This is what the quote says to me.

Dan