“Maybe it's better not to be the best. Then you can lose, and it's ok.”

I’m not sure how many people have ever played it, but I love it. It’s refered to by some as Othello, Reversi, or Black and White checkers (in china). I call it simply: fun. You begin the game on a board of 8 by 8 with four pieces in the center; two black, two white, diagonally from each other forming a square. Each player takes turns adding a piece in an attempt to end up with the most pieces of their color on the board. The catch is that the new piece must be added adjacent to another piece and if a direct line can be made between the new piece and another of the same player’s color than all pieces in those lines changed to that players color as well. I have a long standing history with this game.

Beginning as far back as my Geometry class (or maybe it was algebra) with Ms. Shepsman my freshman year, I was fascinated by this game. The Texas Instruments TI-85 calculator my parents bought for me for my high school mathematical education not only provided a means for calculations – it also could have games. Connect-Four, Solitaire, Minesweeper, a rudimentary Super Mario Bros., and most importantly – Othello. And over the course of high school, I got good. In fact, so good that I would see how few moves it would take me to completely eliminate the computers. I knew the way the AI thought and could maximize on that knowledge.

Following a distracted freshman year and a focused year as a missionary in Hong Kong, I again found my love. My parents had been rad enough to send me money to buy a very nice electronic Chinese-English Dictionary in Hong Kong. And to my delight, I found a section called “Learning Activities” (after I had of course learned to read the words Learning Activity in Chinese). And one such activity was none other than my old friend, Othello. I kept that dictionary with me always; a ready reference. And so I also had Othello with me. At lunch or on the “John”, I would find time for the occasional game. And so I kept my strategy and reversing skills sharp and calibrated.

Back from the Far East, I continued to reverse my way to elation. Yet, after a tragic accident on my skateboard on campus, and my dictionary being on the impact side of my backpack, I again found myself in a Dark Age of Othello. That is, until I became the proud owner of a Sanyo 5300 cell phone. Camera/Internet phones are to cell phones what the TI series was to calculators. Not only did I get Tecmo Bowl on my phone (yes, while slow, still a classic) but I also found a copy of Reversi. And so now I again play round after round as I enjoy my paid bathroom breaks. And I’d like to think that my skills are as good as they’ve ever been.

Well, with that little history, I have come to understand one thing: Control the corners. The corners are easily the most important spaces to control because you can’t lose them. Once you have a corner it’s yours for the duration of the game. It also allows for comfortable control of the board. However, I have found that from time to time I get control of one, two, even three corners and then the computer makes use of some cunning strategy (or I get sloppy...maybe) and I end up losing. It’s sometimes quite a devastating site to those who might be in the breakroom with me.

However, other times I see the writing on the wall (no, not on the stall) and then still rapidly lose the corners, sometimes, all four. And yet even in these desperate times, I have been able to pull a win from the gaping jaws of defeat. All logic and Othello stratagem would say that he you must always have control of the corners in order to win. But whether its extensive experience and gaming genius or tactical laziness and overconfident bravado, victory can still come to either party despite a lack of control.

As I go through life I find more and more times when I have lost all control of “the Corners” of the Othello board of life. Those corners can be anything and are always changing, but tends to be the things that I place great importance or significance to. With the lose thereof, I am frazzled and chaotic and wishing I could have that last move back, or that I could make my opponent pick a certain space, and finally, that maybe I should just scrap this round, shake hands and get ‘em good the next round. But if I calm myself, and play it out carefully, I find I can still come out victorious having no control over “the Corners” at all.

I’m reminded of my favorite song during my mission. It’s the hymn “Master, the Tempest is Raging.” I don’t know why that song was always my favorite (ask any of my companions how often I requested it in our planning or district meetings), maybe it was the beat and tempo of it. But I think now I love that song for the message it has during those times in life where I feel like I’ve lost all control of not only “the Corners”, but the very board itself:

Master, the tempest is raging! The billows are tossing high!
The sky is o'ershadowed with blackness. No shelter or help is nigh.
Carest thou not that we perish? How canst thou lie asleep
When each moment so madly is threat'ning A grave in the angry deep?
The winds and the waves shall obey thy will: Peace, be still.
Whether the wrath of the storm-tossed sea Or demons or men or whatever it be,
No waters can swallow the ship where lies The Master of ocean and earth and skies.
They all shall sweetly obey thy will: Peace, be still; peace, be still.
They all shall sweetly obey thy will: Peace, peace, be still.

“If I win, they'll say 'well of course HE won, he's a top-ranked player.' But if I lose....”