Life Imitates Kart

There is an ongoing debate about whether life imitates art or art imitates life. When something about a movie, novel or painting strikes you as odd, cruel, or crude, is it because life is odd, cruel, or crude and the artist is merely imitating what he or she sees, or when the artist pushes the envelope, do the rank and file follow along, and thus life imitates art? I am not really going to engage this debate, but it is a preface to another thought I had this week.

As many of you know, I celebrated a birthday this week, and my family got me my first video game. I always found it hard to break out that much cash for, what I perceived as a massive waste of time. Must be the Scotchman in me. But, evidently, my family thought I should get on the bandwagon, and so I am the proud new owner of a Wii. What Wii stands for, I have no idea, but it is a fun, wireless gaming distraction.

As part of my Wii “package” I received a copy of the game, Mario Kart. For the uninitiated, it is a whiz-bang rollercoaster ride where cartoon characters drive turbo powered go karts through a wide variety of crazy racetracks.

All of this is preface to my point, which is that there is much about Mario Kart that resembles the lessons and tactics of life. Whether life imitates Kart or the other way around, I will leave for someone else to determine.

A couple of examples: When you are going full speed, it is pretty easy for the inexperienced to hit a wall, or otherwise get off track. Much of life today is lived at full velocity, sometimes even with turbo boost. When you’re going that fast its hard to stay on course unless you really know what you’re doing. Once, I thought that small town life would be relaxed and lived at a slower pace, like Andy and Barney sitting on the porch in Mayberry after supper. I know very few people like that. Even some who have consciously tried to slow down still often move at breakneck speeds. At times life comes at you so fast you cannot react thoughtfully or purposefully, only with the knee-jerk of a reflex response. Perhaps that is why we see so many wrecks and fatalities along the highway of life. You just can’t keep up that pace forever, and eventually, you will only end up in the ditch.

Second, when you are flying down the path, it is very difficult to keep one eye on the road and one eye on the map. If you have ever played one of these games, there is usually a map in the upper corner that shows your route; where the turns and twists and hazards are, and where you are in relation to the other racers. This is very helpful information, but its hard to watch the map and the road at the same time.

All of us need a road map in life, to help us understand where we are going and how to get there. The Bible provides that kind of map, if we will only slow down long enough to read it. The problem is, most of us are going too fast to really see where we are going. To me, this underscores the concept the Bible calls Sabbath Rest. It is actually one of the Ten Commandments. Richard Foster considers it one of the disciplines of the Christian life. How curious that in these hectic days, it is a spiritual discipline to rest.

My advice, then, is to slow down. Don’t just stop and smell the roses, although that would be nice. But spend some time with God, go to church and join the faithful in worship, be renewed in body, mind and spirit. Read your Bible, your road map, to figure out where the heck you are going. And maybe even take some time out for Mario Kart. You might just learn something.