It’s a bonus when a good book plants thoughts that linger long after the book is finished. Our de Grummond Book Group recently read Jason Reynolds’s The Boy in the Black Suit. I will just recommend the book without reviewing it so I can get to the lingering thoughts.
Life has dealt Matt, the teenage protagonist, a hard hand with grief over his mother’s death and then his father’s long-term recovery from a car accident caused by the drinking he was doing to drown his own sorrow. Fortunately, Mr. Ray, the local mortician, steps up to offer Matt a much needed job and becomes an adult mentor. In one episode, Mr. Ray mentions playing chess with Matt before both admit they lack skill in that game. Instead, they substitute the childhood card game of War.
While they play, Mr. Ray philosophizes about those who see life as a game of chess where the players are in control and every move triggers an expected response with the outcome of the game almost a forgone conclusion in the hands of a skilled player. As he and Matt draw cards with only chance determining the winner of each hand, he points out that we like to believe that life goes like a chess game with good strategy determining the outcome. He says it’s more like the game of War where you draw a card and sometimes you win, sometimes you lose.
That conundrum has stayed with me long after I closed the last page in the book. I’m not ready yet to throw out all planning and preparation for good things in life, but I think Mr. Ray has a point. Some days you get up, the sun shines, your football team wins a crucial game, and beloved friends and relatives show up or send a message. Other days, a tornado rolls through, the sink gets stopped up, and one of those beloved friends or relatives comes down with a long term illness.
In the end, I think Mr. Ray came to a good conclusion. He said, “I can lose and lose and lose and I don’t know why. But there’s nothing I can do but just keep flipping the cards. Eventually, I’ll win again. As long as you got cards to keep turning, you’re fine. Now, that’s life.”
I hope my readers keep flipping their cards with most of them coming up in the win column.