Playing Chess

I used to think that when I got older I'd go back to playing chess.  I didn't expect that to end up being a metaphor for how my life would evolve during a pandemic. I've continued to struggle to find some semblance of normalcy over the past three months.  This morning I woke up realizing that I'm in the most complex chess match of my life.  It's a game of chess that is composed of politics, human nature, morality, science and life.  I've had to learn a lot about all of these things over the past three months.

I've been making a lot of the moves on the chess board since the beginning of March but it's now time for me to engage my colleagues.  They are my team, and it's a team that needs to be gently led.  It's been interesting to see some of my colleagues aligning with me over the past month or so, whether they realize it or not.  In many ways, I've felt alone since this began, that loneliness a product of the fact that I have a unique set of skills and experiences that put my in a position to do what I've done.

The loneliness that I've felt is also my weakness.  A general without an army has no value.  In a lot of ways, I've been able to demonstrate the fact that I have some intuitive sense as to strategy and tactics, is where I am today.  It's time to pull together some of my core teams to move our collective mission forward.  Many of them have spent their lives fighting for the same thing that I've fought for.  We've just fought the battle in different ways.  We all have our strengths and weaknesses.  It's time to magnify the strengths and minimize the weaknesses.  Our opponents are too strong otherwise.  Life is about to be a lot like playing chess.