Just like on the playing field (one hopes), playing the game of life successfully requires a deep knowledge of the rules: how to apply them, when to apply them, which bend of the rules is allowed by honor, which is required by grace.
The finest players also know that you play the hand you are dealt, that the only thing that always pays off is hard work (talent can get you only so far), that unexpected obstacles in the course of play are best handled squarely, without panic, but that you can only do that if you have prepared well.
To whit: one of my dearest friends (she of the longest standing friendship in my life) has been dealt a blow in the last month - a diagnosis of cancer. In another time, if I had been asked to speculate about how she would approach something like this, I would have guessed that she, as one of the great practitioners of life, would have handled it with grace, grit, determination, spirit, and a deep faith in self that comes from an inner strength built over years of hard work.
Alas, I do not have to guess.
But I would have been right because that's exactly how she's tackling this one.
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