Checkers, Chess, and Faith...An Object Lesson

I can't really put my finger on what exactly triggers revelations in my mind where things that maybe made no sense or only partial sense before become clear. It can be anything really, sometimes it's just the amalgam of life, the sum total of my experiences adding up to create something more. In this case, it was watching "Remember the Titans" for what seems like the 10th time this year. It's on cable all the time, and I like the football part of the story, but it's really more about life, how fragile it is, and how everything is connected.

In the movie, Coach Herman Boone (Denzel Washington) comes into a newly segregated school to be head coach of the football team, replacing a very popular and successful white coach in the process. In Virginia, at the height of the civil rights movement, this definitely ruffled some feathers. The principal then informs Coach Boone right before the season starts that if he loses one game, he is fired and the white coach is back in. Here's where my analogy comes in.

I've heard it said before, used as a perjorative slam of an expression to insult someone's depth and intellect, that "I play chess and you're playing checkers." (I think Denzel Washington said that in "Training Day".) The theory behind that statement is that the person you say that to has no vision, and they have only the ability or willingness to see and deal with what is directly in front of them, the impact and consequences of those decisions on other things down the line be damned.

Such a high pressure situation could have certainly led Coach Boone to play checkers, to only deal with the most immediate goal in front of him...to keep winning at all costs. His genius lay not only in the checkers-type focus, the simplicity and execution of his play calling (the team only ran about 6-10 plays on offense), but also in his ability to anticipate potential problems, to see three moves ahead, and to have solutions ready that would be helpful both in the short-term and in the long run.

For example, he could have been a puppet and let the white coaches run the team with him as a figurehead, but realized that would do nothing to advance the ideals of equality behind integration, and also that it would lead to confusion, discord, and maybe mutiny among the players along racial lines. Or, when the white team captain laid down an ultimatum, demanding that he reserve half the offense and all the defense for white players, he could have caved to that demand if he thought it would lead to wins. But again, it went against the principles of equality and would have actually worked contrary to the team and personal goal of winning by keeping other more skilled black players out of the game.

What does all this mean? To me, it meant that he could not have survived and succeeded without a mixture of these things: the focus on the present required to win at checkers, the vision of a chess master to see how decision A might impact decision B and decision F down the road, and a healthy dose of faith.

There's a particularly poignant scene near the end where he is alone with his wife, questioning himself, whether he pushed the players too hard, whether he is doing the right thing. This is the vulnerability every man has but few will admit to having. Her answer was, "Life is just hard sometimes. Gary (his star white linebacker) had an accident, that's not your fault." In the end, he stood his ground, got a few breaks, and things worked out great, but there was a substantial possibility of things turning out disastrously.

Even with the focus of a checkers player and the vision of a chess master, he had to have faith that doing the things he stood for would produce the desired results. I'm sure that wasn't easy in the face of virulent protests, thinly veiled racism, and even attacks against him and his family. Want more possible landmines? ...the players of opposite races could have refused to bond and play as a team no matter what...his white defensive coordinator/assistant head coach could have heeded the calls of the white parents and sat out all of the white players in protest...that same coach could have simply done nothing and allowed the white officials to sabotage a game with too many penalties, causing the team to lose, him to be elevated to coach, and Coach Boone being fired (instead, he told the officials to call it straight or go to jail)

The point is that any one of a hundred breaks could have gone against him at the wrong time and brought it all crashing down. Life is an exquisite tapestry of events, woven together by faith and destiny...it's like the old choose your own ending novels, where if you chose Option A, the story ended one way, Option B, another way, etc. The importance of having the focus of a checkers master and the vision of a chess master, even those things will only take you so far because there are a million things in life we've no control over...the actions of other people mainly, but also things like timing, feelings, and circumstances under which we live and operate.

Trust in God with the things I can't change, of opening the doors I am powerless to open, etc....that's the only thing that keeps me sane. I spent a long time trying to control as much as I could in my life, and it never worked. It led to frustration, sadness, and sometimes even anger. Faith is what fills in the gap, and not knowing all the answers to the crossword puzzle of life is what makes living either fun, new, and interesting, or very scary, depending on your perspective. I prefer and have chosen the latter, and it really has made all the difference in my life...this applies to my professional life, my romantic/dating life, to all of it... it's really gotten me to a good place (the normal bad days we all have notwithstanding), and I can't imagine ever going back.

Maybe this makes sense to someone besides me or maybe not so much, but this is my therapy, and your mileage may vary. :)