Thursday, March 26, 2009

I Cheated

I know I shouldn't have done it but I could not help myself when I was playing a game on a hand held palm pilot. Text Twist is the game & you have 2 minutes to form as many words as possible out of 6 letters. I spell fairly well & know a few words so the game helps pass time while challenging my brain a little. The problem is that I am very competitive & challenge myself far worse than anyone else can & the other day I was reaching a milestone score when I ran out of words with about 30 seconds left on the timer. I knew that if I could find the right 6 letter word that I could reach this milestone of 100,000 points so I shut the game off, knowing it would start at the same spot when I turned it back on & that I would still have about 30 seconds left. I wrote down the letters & wrote down a couple pages of possible words but none of them were real words or at least I didn't know the words & didn't want to start game & try the wrong word & then run out of time. I went on the computer & it is amazing what you can find on a computer. I found a web site that when you type in letters it will instantly give you every legitimate word associated with those letters so yes, I got my word of which I was unfamiliar & then I turned game on & typed in word. hallelujah It was the word I needed & I reached the milestone.
My question is, does this count because I was smart enough to find the word even though it wasn't in the right amount of time? I just answered my own question, of course it counts, (JUST KIDDING). I know it doesn't count but if only for a moment it felt great to think I out smarted a stupid computer game.
I think that in life we quite often get caught up in the same dilemmas & instead of failing or coming up short, we manipulate the outcome in our favor so we can gain something or at least feel like we gained something. The problem with cheating is that we can become numbed to the emotional feelings of whether it is right or wrong & after awhile we just don't care.
I believe that each thing we do in life has an outcome, as the common phrase says "for every action there is a reaction". The more we lie, the easier it is to lie, The more we cheat, the easier it is to cheat & I believe that when we do things we know to be wrong, we need to block those emotional feelings of guilt out of our mind, or else the guilt would consume us.
I also believe that if we let guilt into our mind, we can change & not make the mistakes again or perhaps the guilt will remind us that we don't ever want that emotional pain again.
On the other hand, I believe that people who let their conscience or "light of Christ" guide them & not shove them out of the way, that you will avoid the pit falls of wrong choices.
I knew I shouldn't cheat the stupid game but the desire to reach the goal became more powerful than the knowledge it wasn't ok. I know it is just a game & doesn't really matter what I did or what my score was or how I got the score but it is the fact that I cheated & the fact that I am still thinking about it, tells me it must not have been ok. So because you are all trusted friends or family, I thought I would share my thoughts with you.

1 comment:

When Two Became One said...

Hey Dad, I think that it's time for you to post another one of your brilliant thoughts. I've had a couple people ask me when you're going to post again! I think everyone loves to read your wonderful thoughts :-) I love you tons Dad and I can't wait to see you.