Candy Crush Philosophy

Life is like a box of candy…

There’s this game on Facebook I’ve been playing called Candy Crush. You have to line up at least 3 similar “candies” in a row to zap them away (not diagonally). Sometimes you do that and more rows fall down, unseen from above, and line up perfectly and disappear.

Unexpectedly, you win the game.

Other times you click away for days never making progress, and the game offers to let you buy tempting “cheats” to win a level. (Like a carnival game, you could easily drop $20 trying to win a single game, so I stay away from that option.)

Anyway, it struck me that this game is like life, sort of. You can work and work trying to get your candies lined up, so to speak, and have nothing happen. Other times, some concurrence of events makes those candies explode and you rise to the next level with little effort.

Also, I had to come up with a justification for spending all my time playing this game.

Maybe I should make some sort of Jack Handy-style poster…

I guess I was thinking about this because a few irritating things have happened. For the last couple of weeks, I understand Mercury’s been in retrograde, which possibly accounts for it. First Cadillac went to get gas one morning, and his car died. Then the main sewer line backed up, and a plumber had to come out at 12:30 am on a Monday morning to dig out a tree root (sorry, neighbors). Then my car wouldn’t start. Then everybody got sick for some degree, at various inconvenient times.

Luckily, these problems got taken care of quickly, and I have family and friends to call if I need help. When Cadillac’s car wouldn’t start, he texted our eldest, knowing she’d have her phone on for the alarm; and she got her siblings up and made them breakfast and didn’t wake me for another hour, so I didn’t even know about it. I would have totally woken my parent up.

It reminded me of how quickly luck can change, for better or worse.