Life according to Kart

One of the things about me that shocked my youth at the church I serve when I first started was how good at Mario Kart I was.  Some of them even accused me of cheating when I beat them. What they didn't realize is that I have been playing Mario Kart in some form since before some of them were even born. I can thank Wofford College and my fraternity brothers to introducing me and forcing me to get good at the game. So like anything else in my life, I love to think about the lessons that can be learned from this video game.

First, experience is key.  I was not very good when I started to play.  But mornings and afternoons, and really the entire month of January for two years allowed me to learn the ins and outs of the game. Experience is important of life. Being told about something is one thing, but experiencing them takes things to a whole new level.

Secondly, in a lot of races in the game, things happen that are out of your control.  The power ups allow others an advantage and sometimes those advantages can affect you adversely. Sometimes in our lives things happen that are out of our control.  We cannot always dictate the situations and outcomes.  Instead, we can only control how we will respond.  We have to keep racing. No matter what happens.

Thirdly, in Mario Kart the bane of each and every player's existence in the dreaded blue shell. There you are, going along in the lead and out of no where comes the blue shell launched by some other player who is some way back. Life can be like that. Everything will seem to be going along and out of no where we are blindsided. This can come from others making poor decisions, health issues, or any other instance in which we are knocked off our feet.

Fourthly, you can either be a good character or a bad character. You can choose to be hero or villain, Mario or Wario, or in my can Yoshi or King Boo. This is life too. Several weeks ago I was expressing my disdain for a particular pro sports athlete. I really want to hate him, but then he goes and does something amazingly inspiring for some random some kid and I find myself kind of liking him.  I was explaining this to my beautiful and far more intelligent wife to which she responded, "Isn't that all of us? Don't we all have both the best and the worst inside of us?" Truth. You and I can build and be heroes or we can tear down and be the villains. All of us. And most of the time, we are both. Let's call it the human condition. 

Lastly, Mario Kart is a game and is suppose to be fun.  There is a defined finish line in which all racers are trying to accomplish. While I am not so crass to suggest that life is a game, I do believe we are suppose to enjoy it, having fun every chance we get.  And there is most definitely a finish line that all of us will cross one day.  And hopefully we will all feel like winners.

And by the way, I do play online on the Wii sometimes so get in touch and we can race. Just be prepared to lose!