The End Game
For many of us, ‘the end game’ calls to mind the game of chess, that most complicated
and challenging of board games. The end game differs from the opening and the middle
game because there are only a few pieces left on the board, maybe three each,
and you find that whatever plan you had in mind at the start must now be abandoned in
favor of a new strategy—the end game. Can I get that pawn to the other end before his
rook nails me?
The end game is often good news outside of chess because it allows us to abandon a
strategy or a plan that’s not working. Maybe you’ve never really believed in another
popular phrase—the higher power—but maybe now, as you grow older, you begin to see
some wisdom there. There’s an old joke about the young man who went from 17 years of
age to 21 and was surprised to see how much his parents had learned in the past four
years.
How many of our plans made when we were in our teens or 20s have come out the way
we thought they would? How many of our plans made in our 40s? Our 60s? And for
those of us in our 80s and older? The end game takes on a whole new meaning for us, and
trust me, the new 80s are a lot like the same old 80s—and you’re definitely in the end
game of your life, at least I feel that way. Should I change my strategy? Do I have a
strategy and does it need changing? In my case, my strategy is to maintain physical,
mental and emotional health to the best of my ability for as long as possible. That’s my
end game as of age 84, (going on 85:-) and even then I can change the end game, or
accept it—or part of it—and in such a way that it gives me—and others— comfort. We in
our 80s are in the ultimate end game, and we may find ourselves with only one or two
important pieces left on the board—what might they represent? Some business that needs
our attention that we’ve been neglecting all our lives? Something about our health
denials, perhaps? Or a life-long estrangement that might be resolved? An apology that
needs to be made? After years of stony silence and repeating, “I’ll never speak to him
again!” will one more phone call break through, like that once less important pawn
halfway across the board that suddenly becomes a queen and leads you to another victory.
At least in that particular end game, because another one is coming along soon. And as I
finally realize that at our age, the Universe is a strange, often pleasant and unpredictable
place, and when I sometimes mumble or complain about life, the Universe always says
the same thing: Your move.
DW2026
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