Simon Says

Most people know this game. I even had the electronic version; remember the four colors we had to memorize and match or get zonked. I can’t articulate that sound, but you can hear it in your own head. What is the premise for Simon says? Who is Simon? And why do we have to do what he says? Daily Muse says this game is centuries-old and was originally called “Cicero dicit fac hoc”–Latin for “Cicero says do this.” Back in the times of Rome, when revered statesman Marcus Tullius Cicero said to do something, you did it. So, why Simon? Maybe it’s because of Simon De Montfort, a 13th century French English noble, who commanded so much authority from those around him that he imprisoned King Henry III. He says, if your words outrank the king’s, you should be able to get schoolchildren to pat their heads and rub their tummies at the same time. So, Simon says to do something and then we do it, we copy, as long as Simon says. The trick is when Simon doesn’t say, Simon says, and then we do it, we have lost the game. Life to me is one big Simon says game.

We are constantly bombarded with being told what to do. By parents, by school, by police, by religion, by society, by the government, by anything and everything that tries to exhibit power over one’s thoughts. We try and live by moral and ethical codes and laws to the best of our ability but there seems to be a ton of gray area in the matter. I find myself to be somewhat more of a rebel. Take the Rubix Cube for instance, another game. I never did have the intelligence nor patience to figure that game out. So, I just took it apart and put it back together matching all the pieces. But with Simon says, there is no way around it. It lights ups and beeps and to play the game you just copy what it does for as long as you can. Again, that’s such an analogy of life it’s scary. People just copy what is around them and press the same buttons as everyone else. If you press the wrong button, you lose. I really loved that old game. My ego took it as a challenge to see how far I could remember the pattern of lights. Depending on the preprogramed game setting of the number of times it would light up, one could in all practicality and skill beat the game. But life doesn’t have a preprogrammed number that’s easy to win. There is no way to press all the right buttons and get it right. The Simon says of life is rigged. But that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t play and yet it doesn’t mean that we just continue to play because that’s all there is. We need to understand what we are playing and why we are playing. Be aware.

Simon says, believe in this religion, “baaaaaaaah”. Simon says go to college, have 2.5 kids and a white picket fence, “baaaaaaaah”. Simon says, do as the Jones do, “baaaaaaaah”. Simon says, eat this food but not that food, “baaaaaaaah”. Simon says, work your life away 40 plus hours at a time, “baaaaaaaah”. All the while life has passed you by and you’re now too old to enjoy all that you worked so hard for, “baaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah”. Simon is just a game; your life is not. Turn the game off and experience life away from the ridged control, away from the win or lose. A person has their own ability to think outside the game. Be yourself, be unique, be aware. Simon is not the boss, you are. My point being, is that it’s easy to get caught up with being told what to do, it’s easy being misled, it’s easy to just go through the motions and think we’re doing a good job until that dreaded baaaaaaaah hit’s us. And then we so simply hit reset and do it all over again. The world can be one big Simon says game, award us for hitting all the right buttons, for following all the rules and patterns. Or even bemoaning us for messing up and failing. But what I say is, in awareness, it’s all just part of the process and I don’t need lights and sounds to tell me what is right and wrong. I choose to turn that game off and live in all the colors and sounds that surround me, not just ones that are dictated to me. I choose to live in infinite choice for the Simon says game I play, I am Simon.