EXIT MATTERS
A Roll of the Dice
Jennifer Davis, Founder, Playing With Sparks
03 February 2017
It’s been an exciting past year, and there is much to share. As I’ve been thinking of writing a blog post for a while now, something was stopping me.
I hesitated. Why?
So I decided to play a game. To be more specific, one of the games I have developed in the past year called Exit Matters. And instead of using this game to help me uncover what matters to me as I contemplate my death, I asked the game what matters to it. What does the game Exit Matters want from me? (If you haven’t met me before, you may begin to see why I named my business Playing With Sparks. I learn from playing with sparks of ideas. Never know where they will lead).
This was my first roll – the yellow circle stands for “write”.
So I thought I’d better write.
It’s an interesting way to think about life – and death – as a roll of the dice.
Many of us who desire a certain amount of control, or believe we create our own reality may struggle with the idea of rolling a dice to determine our lives – or for that matter the next steps of a business. But for those that think life is some sort of a reality game – it’s kind of a fun concept.
What I am tickled by is the thought of using the game as a kind of tablet or way to capture what this game, which seems to have a mind of it’s own judging by all the things I’ve had to get through to even get to this point, is asking of me. Not just me wanting perhaps to share the game (the pink circle) or take a chance on the game (the purple circle), or to define my business even further (the green circle) or to reflect on the game more (my favourite way of procrastinating and the blue circle) which were all options.
My next roll….was Choice.
The centre circle from which all directions are accessible. Some people really hate this place. In the game it’s a forced choice – a “would you rather” where you are given 2 or 3 limited options and are asked to choose. Not really the freedom that the word “choice” might signify, but the action of “just go ahead and make a choice already”.
It’s amazing how accurate this second message is for me. I feel like I too can go in many directions – there is a third game already percolating. A book struggling to be printed. Facilitators needing to be trained to begin to spread the game further. I’ve actually been saying this in the past week to friend – it’s like the game knows I’ve been ignoring it as I purse other directions and it just wants me to focus. To choose. So I’d better.
My next roll was the yellow circle again – to write. Wow, I’m really getting the message! I guess you’ll be seeing a lot more posts from me for a while!
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Did I create the game Exit Matters just so I could understand what my dad is going through in his end-of-life process?
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In the Life Training
I have somewhat gently introduced my own family to my passion for thinking and talking about death. I’ve had them play the Exit Matters game back when…