Post 882 - May 3, 2026

Life is, of course, a game.

We all get thrust into the action mid-play. From the outset our parents try to teach us the rules of engagement that they learned. Then our schoolteachers try to teach us the rules that they know. Those rules from our childhoods are usually a mixture of what society expects us to follow, with, if we are lucky, some novel ideas for how to branch off and write new ones.

Before we are truly ready to go it alone, there we are, going it alone. We are tossed into the deep end and told to swim.

Nobody out in the great, wide world, we eventually come to learn, follows the same rules. To play the game effectively, we must learn how to follow the guidelines we’ve been taught when it seems prudent and to break away when an opportunity presents itself. When we do break away, we either do so following the moral codes we’ve been raised under, or we decide to break those norms and move ourselves forward regardless.

The sequel to the film The Devil Wears Prada just opened in New York. We haven’t seen it yet, but last night I rewatched the original back home on the television. That movie might just be the most perfect encapsulation of how we learn the rules of our capitalist, corporate world ever shot.

Beginning in junior high and continuing into high school, I became involved in both schools’ theatre program. It began innocently enough with my junior high drama teacher, Mr. Wonder (I promise you that was his name) standing out by the busses one afternoon asking for volunteers to work backstage on a show. I said yes.

The show was Bells are Ringing. I honestly don’t remember much about it. I think I might have been on the prop crew. Whatever it was I did, that simple yes as I was heading home one day dropped me into the game that I am still playing today.

The basis of the Darwinian theory of evolution is competition. The man was obviously right. It is clearly how our world works. Those who are the strongest survive, reproduce, and keep their pieces on the board. Those who are beaten fold their hands and fall away.

I remember one summer back in those early pre-college days. We had a theatre program run by our high school drama teacher, Mr. Godthaab, and assisted by some of the faculty and parents. We were doing a musical that summer and one of the kids’ mothers was choreographing it. This woman had once danced as a Rockette at Radio City Music Hall.

In an interview with the town newspaper, she was asked about where she thought the kids involved in the show may end up. She responded that while she thought that all of us were very talented, none of us were silly enough to be aiming for Broadway. It was too hard and too competitive.

Too hard for you, I thought. Hold my beer.

It took me about fifteen years from that moment to land my first Broadway gig. It seemed to take forever. Proving that lady wrong was utterly satisfying.

For a while in school I thought I wanted to be an actor. It turned out that I didn’t want that enough to make the necessary sacrifices. Instead, I fell into stage managing which was something I understood and knew I could do. I also genuinely enjoyed it. Unbeknownst to me the man that I would eventually marry had come to the same juncture at almost exactly the same time He decided to take the other road. Michael knew he could act so while I was on my journey backstage, he embarked on his onstage.

I learned how to see what was going on and step in when there was a gap that needed filling. The best way to compete, I found, was to let the people above me fall aside themselves. Fighting them head on never worked.

I was offered shortcuts along the way. I could work for somebody unscrupulous and get a better position provided I was willing to be unscrupulous myself. I rarely took those opportunities. I found I couldn’t enjoy what I was doing if it came at somebody else’s expense.

The thing with advancement in our corporate culture is that moving ahead always comes at somebody else’s expense. For every person who gets a job, there is a list of folks who don’t. How much of that can we stand is something we need to come to terms with.

I have worked for producers I didn’t like as well as for those I admired. Even the ones I liked sometimes made decisions I thought were unfair and damaging. A very hard lesson to learn was that anyone who works for a company is expendable when that company’s existence is on the line. We humans may be able to compete with each other, but we can never truly compete against a business.

There are plenty of people who have made themselves careers because they have been willing to turn a blind eye to some of the morally questionable business practices of their employers. It’s easy enough to judge when the issues at hand seem extreme. When what your bosses are doing is sort of awful but not truly awful, looking away becomes part of the job. The tipping point is different for each of us.

There is a satisfaction to be had at succeeding against a complex and nuanced set of challenges. When you have the right cards in your hand and you can maybe bluff a bit and take a chance or two and wind up ahead, we can feel triumphant. Was anyone hurt during that round? Maybe a little? They should have played the game better is what we tell ourselves.

The rules keep the game from becoming a free-for-all. The Republicans aren’t playing by the rules in the game of governance. There is nothing elegant or skillful in the way they are achieving their political goals. Instead, the GOP is simply using brute force to barge its way to the finish line. It doesn’t seem to be asking about the people who may be impacted along the way. The hell with anyone or anything that stands in the way.

The President was raised by a bully and, unsurprisingly, became one, himself. Rather than learning the rules of the game, he learned how to subvert, avoid, and destroy those rules. Behind him is a whole cadre of other people who don’t seem to have been able to get anywhere in their own lives. Either they didn’t have the skill to maneuver through the various levels of play, or they didn’t have the patience and strength needed to move forward. To get themselves ahead, they’ve aligned themselves with the devil.

It’s taken me being forced to confront the reality of my own privilege to understand just how many advantages I’ve had from the starting gate. Like Andy who walks away from the dream job that transforms her outlook on life in The Devil Wears Prada, I’ve walked away from Broadway as well. Andy left without anywhere to go. I, on the other hand, left with the means to support myself. I’d like to think that I never succumbed to having to compromise myself morally but thinking that I’d be lying to myself. I’m no saint.

Survival of the fittest always means that the unfit are not going to survive. That doesn’t mean that we shouldn’t lend a hand to the people who struggle even if they are in competition with us. The Republicans are trying to eliminate the competition in the game by excluding huge swaths of players from ever getting anywhere near the board. It’s much easier to win with fewer and less capable opponents.

The recent ruling by the US Supreme Court will severely impact the breadth of the people out on the playing field. The Voting Rights Act came after decades of struggle, sacrifice, and pain forced our nation to level the playing field for its people. Too many people weren’t being given a fair shot. After its passing though, there were now too many people who resented having the privilege given them by the accidents of their births and genetics diluted or taken away. A fair fight, for these people, is too hard. They can’t win unless their opponents are hobbled in some way.

I learned how to play the game with the rules that were in place at the time I entered the fray. The way I moved forward worked for me and for my circumstances. Luck had a huge part in my journey as did my advantages, but I also used what was at hand in a way that seems to have been effective.

Along the way I have managed to help more than a few people get ahead themselves. I hope that may counterbalance the people I stopped.

What are the rules in a society that is no longer guided by rules? What’s the point of playing a game when there is no chance of even getting anywhere near the arena? If I were in high school now, what goal would I be setting my sights on now? The theatre I fell in love with doesn’t operate in the same way it once did.

Tonight I am seeing an imported English production of Hamlet out in Brooklyn. To be or not to be, that is the question. How do we take arms against what is happening to our society? How do we restore the rules of the game and convince everyone that they are worth following?

We created a framework within our society where we could improve the rules we’d made while still following them. It was a slow and tangled process, but we were doing it. Now a group of bullies is trying to throw the whole thing out. According to the Republicans, none of it is worth keeping.

Caitlyn Jenner has just discovered the hard way that the rules that were protecting her no longer do that when you vote to destroy them. She seems to have been under the impression that she could live as she pleased no matter what. Oh well, too bad, Caitlyn. The GOP doesn’t care about you. They never did. That’s all.

When Andy leaves her job at the end of Prada, she doesn’t leave all of it behind. She takes the part that might be useful for her in the next round. She takes what she’s learned along with, of course, some new clothes and makeup tips. She will use them to compete elsewhere which will give her an earned advantage.

Andy’s lumpy cerulean sweater has likely ended up on a thrift store rack somewhere. Meryl Streep just wore a similar sweater during an interview for the sequel. It was a great reminder of Andy’s journey in the first one. She looked pretty good in it. Comfortable.

Like it or not we are all forced into play in this life. The games may all be different but the playing of them is not. As difficult as it sometimes is to get anywhere, there is little joy or satisfaction to be had in cheating. If that is the only way a person can win, then they aren’t winning at all.

By the way, there is no winning. There is only playing. If life is a game, then it’s more like Tetris than Monopoly. There is no end to it. There is no winner. It just keeps cycling through.

We don’t need to destroy the rulebook; we just need to keep trying to make it fairer. I’ve played my round of the tournament, for the most part. It’s now time for the next teams to suit up and head to the field.

It’s all in the playing. Be better out there. Forget best, better is just fine.

That’s more than enough.