Winning vs Losing: What does it mean to win / lose?

In Which I Just Talk to You in the Beginning and See What Happens

Winning. Ah, that glorious term, that glorious word of delicious victory...

Losing. Ah, that hideous term, that awful term of defeat...ugh


But really, what does it mean to win? When we say someone has won in life, what does that mean?

He is successful? Is that all? Perhaps it means different things in different countries. Generally we can probably all agree on these elements for winning in life:

Family
Money
Food
Home (or just roof over head)

(Keep these in mind guys, I'll be talking about them...some of them.)

If we have these things and all of them are going A-Okay, then we are probably "winning". If we don't have them they we are "losing".  But then, there are people who have lived in poverty all their lives and you ask them if they are happy and they say YEAH! :D

This makes me think now that maybe winning is based on happiness.

Okay, let's for a moment talk about something really specific.

The Lottery.

Winning the Lottery is rare and a BIG DEAL. If someone wins the lottery they are featured on TV AND ARE FAMOUS!

I once saw a story of a retired old guy who won the lottery. Some Southern place where the sun is hot. Maybe Texas, maybe California, I don't remember. Anyway, he was on TV and everything and he seemed happy. I mean, I would be happy if I won the lottery. I would even be a little shocked cuz I rarely win anything, even an online writing contest. Yeah. I've been writing longer than you, newbies.

Anyway...*looks away sheepishly and tries not to point fingers at a certain writing website that I have been on for YEARS and never been featured on the homepage....*

He had won the lottery. He has a million bucks on his hands. Is he happy?

In an interview he said NO!

Would he ever want to win again? NO!

Why not? Because his relatives and people he barely knows and neighbors kept pestering him about getting a share of the money.

So, he had won one of the elements, Money. He also seemed to have a loving wife, too. So Family is also down. But having money, winning, did not make him happy and if we are saying that winning is based on happiness then this old guy actually LOST in life *takes a long sip of coffee*

This is similar to the people who live in, what us middle-class consider as, poverty all their lives and they know no other kind of life. Let's take a moment here. We say they live in poverty just because we have only lived in a society where having a roof over your head, three meals, electricity, clean water, education, and easy enough access to medical assistance is the norm. From our point of view if someone didn't have some of these necessities, we see them as poor. THEY might not think they are poor if they have no other lifestyle to compare it with.

Think of the tribes in Africa. I once watched a documentary of a very secluded tribe where they have no electricity but have lived there for hundreds of years. They look poor to us but they are not poor in their minds. In fact, they seemed quite happy. They know no other life. Maybe, maybe if we took an infant child from there, adopted her, and brought her up in the States, Europe, Japan, or other places where lives are modern and then brought her back to Africa and force her live there for a few years.

(I say "force" because in this example, the girl has to somehow be unhappy for me to make my point. She can't just go to Africa on a volunteer program and she couldn't have been kidnapped by the local tribesmen because that is impossible. Those people there have never SEEN a plane in their entire lives until that moment of the documentary.)

She might feel like she is living in poverty BECAUSE she knows another lifestyle. So, she might be unhappy and feel like she has LOST in life. Not just because maybe she was forced back.

Maybe that wasn't a good example but you kinda get the idea, right? People who have lived in poverty all their lives and have no contact with any other lifestyle, may not consider themselves poor and may not consider they have LOST in life. In fact, they might think they have had a ten streak win.

BREAK TIME!

Sometimes you need to stop and eat the flowers.
by Gray the Squirrel

In Which I Ask the Ultimate Questions

It all comes down to this, er these, guys:

1. Can you win when you have lost?
2. Can you lose when you have won?

We can say that winning the lottery can actually be a big loss. The stress that comes with in, people wanting your cash, friends turning on you, family members threatening you. Not a life I would want to have. So yes, you can lose when you have won.

Succeeding in business but sacrificing all ties with your closest friends? Is that really a win?

Some people say they will do ANYTHING to get to the top. They say this greedily. But is it really a win when you might lose all your friends and even your loved ones along the way? Sacrificing their trust and those relationships are really worth it?


As for the first one, essentially it is "Is losing always losing?" Maybe you lost. Maybe you can never be the winner of X Factor. But you have made lots of great friends you never would have met if you hadn't entered the competition. I think this is called Optimism or something along those lines.

OH MAN I LOST! I am so awful! The world is coming to an end! is the Pessimistic view of the world.

OH MAN I LOST! But what have I won? Did I learn something from this experience? Did I make new friends? Maybe even friends for a lifetime? Maybe I didn't win the competition but I think I did win something. is the Optimistic view of the world.

OH MAN I LOST! I never win, it's like a jinx, you know? Me and competitions. Geesh, it's just life though, isn't it? Darn you life, LOL. is the Sarcastic view of the world. This is my view.

Here is a baby sheep, for no reason in particular.

So then that means you can win when you have lost. You just need to find that win. If you look at the losing optimistically, you can feel like you have won. And you might actually have. Life can't be THAT bad, right?

You can also lose when you have won. Sacrificing the trust of your loved one is no doubt a loss. In another future, she is your loving wife. Boy, you screwed that one up!

Last and finally, winning and losing, I say, is based on your personal happiness. So what does it mean to win or lose? It is based on happiness, guys. Are you happy? :) If you are, congrats, you are a winner! :D

See ya later, alligators!

I said "alligator". You can't fool me, llama.