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Saturday 3 September 2011

Wordplay - move

From Wikipedia

Samuel Johnson's dictionary 3rd edition published in 1766 defines 'move' as:-

To MOVE, v, n.
1. To go from one place to another.
2. To walk ; to bear the body.
3. To go forward.
4. To change the posture of the body in ceremony.

Movement is what the universe is all about - from Newton's laws of motion to the theory of relativity to quantum theory. Instead of cogito ergo sum, Descartes could well have opined moveor ergo sum - I move therefore I am. Maybe that wasn't philosophical enough for him, yet movement is more fundamental than thinking as Descartes really should have known. It's all about change - to change is to move, to move anything is to change something.

There is more to moving than simple physical movement of course, there is a complex social aspect too where movement and change fuse into one. We all have our own moves to make in the great game of life, taking this path or that, making this change or that. Movement is a compulsory fact of life. To die is to have no moves left in the locker, not even the faintest expression of regret.

So looking back on our lives to date, how many of us think we made the right moves? Would we play them differently if allowed to play the game again, especially now we've had a better look at the book of rules? Because that's what life is all about isn't it? Winners and losers, good moves and bad moves, moves made from habit, moves we've learned too well, moves that no longer work as well as they once seemed to.

Is there time to work out some better moves, or does the whole game slowly slip from our grasp? Like a Victorian automaton, do we keep playing the same moves over and over because we have nothing better?

Are most of the real moves made by others? Is the state looking over our shoulder, moving for us, fiddling with the rules - the compulsive kibitzing of the micro-manager?  Or is it time to stop thinking and just get on with the game before it's too late? Before the Last Move - the final checkmate.

2 comments:

James Higham said...

At a school concert in Russia, I watched the preparations as one woman came in with a vase of flowers, another came in a minute later and moved it, the first came through a minute later and moved it back again and so on.

About two dozen people were moving but not getting anywhere.

A K Haart said...

JH - sound like a dream (: