[W]hat sort of message does Candy Land send to our kids? (And I’m not just talking about all the implicit advertisements for cane sugar products.) It says you are powerless, that your destiny is entirely determined by the luck of the draw, that the only chance you have of winning the game lies in following the rules, and accepting the cards as they come. Who wants to grow up in that kind of universe?

[From The case against Candy Land – Boing Boing]

Now, Steven, I love ya, buddy, but here’s the deal: For a lot of us, we are powerless. Oh sure, we could ditch our day jobs and seize the day, pull ourselves up by our bootstraps, and throw out the deck of cards and start making our own. People make decisions which affect your daily life, your work life, over which you have no control. A butterfly flaps its wings in China, causing your day to be ruined by some a**hole in a Dodge pickup. Or maybe you get to pick up a coffee in the morning, thanks to that butterfly’s benevolence. Only it’s not benevolence, it just… is.

Don’t get me wrong, I love my day job. Okay, maybe ‘love’ is a bit of a strong word for it. But I like it. I don’t mind it. But many days, especially days when I have meetings, it really, really hits me that I have no power at all over my own destiny. Sure, I also believe you can make your own luck, to a degree, but sometimes, just sometimes, Candy Land is a very apt model for how the world works. Stuff just happens. Pick a card.

Yours Truly,

_m

#9 Lollipop Lane,

Candy Land TW12