8.30 pm
“Is life really that unfair?”
“Huh?”
“You heard me, bro. I’m okay but I just felt that there must be a reason why life is so random. Don’t you think so?”
Sidiq shot me a random question out of the blue. The coffee shop was relatively empty right now as we watched a replayed telecast of a tennis match. I glanced over while he remains glued onto the TV, with disillusioned eyes fixated onto the screen. I’m quite surprised that such an important question is being asked with distant apathy.
“Well, from the way I look at it, it does seems that way on the surface. But once you think about what makes life unfair, you begin to see that life evens out in a natural way.”
I tried to make some sense. At least, it’s hard to give out my usual generic response while your friend took a turn into unknown spiritual territory.
“Here,” I motioned, attempting to get some attention.
“Think of yourself as a character in a game, say, The Sims. You begin the game by customizing your features and attributes before you start your quest. Life is similar, except that you start off in a random place, given random attributes and traits.
But one thing for sure — at least in my opinion — is that the parameters are the same. For each of our capabilities we endow, comes our limitations. There are certain aspects which we are good at, and there are some things we lack thereof. Kind of like a check and balance. Surely, The Creator knows what is best for His Creation.”
“That’s interesting.”
“Well, the trick is to find out what we’re good at, and what we can improve on. Same like tennis. You can deliver a mean serve, but that doesn’t mean that you will win the entire game.”
We returned to the TV set, having witnessed Naomi Osaka returning a great volley from Sharapova. She seems so perfect, executing every move like a well-oiled machine.
I’m surprised to see us engrossed with tennis.
10.15 pm
We head over to our bikes and bid our farewell.
“You know what?” Siddiq responded.
“This life better turns out to be a simulation. Cos I’ve yet to start ranking up my character to something worth living for.”
“Then you better start now. G’nite bro.”
We sped off on our bikes and make our exit to the nearest expressway.
Perhaps, Osaka has influenced my friend or maybe Siddiq is having a momentary crash of clarity from all that coffee. Whatever happened back there, I do come to believe that a generous dose of caffeine and a couple of tennis might be the motivation we need to encourage ourselves to whatever we are aspiring to be.
Thank you for reading.
