Snakes and Ladders
When I was growing up, board games were a common way to pass an hour or two. Monopoly could go on for days, but Snakes and Ladders was a quick and mindless way to spend an afternoon with friends or family.
The object of the game is to move your coloured plastic marker from the start line to the finish line. Players take turns rolling the dice and advancing their markers across the board, by counting squares, according to the number rolled.
Simple.
Until chance enters the story. The story shifts if your count takes you to a square filled with a Snake or to a square that is a Ladder. Ladders are good, some are long, some are short, but all Ladders help you move ahead more quickly. A chance landing on a ladder gets you closer to the finish line more quickly.
Snakes, on the other hand, are disappointments. If you land on a square that opens into a snake’s mouth, your plastic marker slides backwards, down the snake’s length and sometimes you land several rows back. Snakes make you lose ground and you end up farther from the finish line. Make sense? Ladders help you move forward. Snakes put you back.
For me, yesterday was a day of Snakes and Setbacks. Some of the snakes were trivial annoyances, but Alberta government’s COVID announcements added to the slippery slope many people are standing on and pushed us back a few notches. Of course, everyone in the Bow Valley, in Alberta, in Canada and pretty much anywhere in the world has their own story of Snakes and Ladders, set-backs and disappointment but as of right now – Christmas 2020 is looking like we will be playing a lot of Solitaire.
Yesterday’s announcements of restrictions on social activities felt like a Snake. But then came the news of the imminent arrival of vaccines and that sounds like a Ladder.
Ladders will help us get ahead of the beast. Snakes will continue to lurk and some chance encounters will push us further from the end zone of this pandemic.
Which makes me wonder about re-imagining the game as a co-operative “Community Snakes and Ladders”. In every community there will be someone who is one or two rungs ahead of you and others will be standing one or two rungs behind you.
COVID has put us all on the same board. Some of us might be closer to getting into a line that goes straight to the Finish. But, chance opportunities, chance genetics, chance risks, chance decisions, and chances of timing means that we will each get a turn to go up the Ladder or slide down the Snake.
My suggestion?
When the Snakes have you sliding backwards, look for a Ladder. Maybe your ladder-of-the-day will arrive in the form of a phone call or a text message or an email. If your Ladders comes in the shape of a heart-felt Christmas card or a chance conversation while out walking, grab on and pull yourself up a few rungs.
Even better? Anchor your ladder with some solid Gratitudes and enjoy the stuff that makes the game more fun.
Looking for a Community Ladder to lean into? Our next a small group Gratitude conversation starts December 13 at 6 pm.
Testimonial from recent participant in Grapes’n’Gratitudes: “I can definitely see the power in these micro-communities and their potential to permeate out into our greater community. I have totally bought into the science of gratitude and am well, grateful for the encouragement to share it more widely!”
