Altered Consciousness

I've never tried narcotics because they represent cowardice, a desire to flee reality rather than face it. Besides, I achieve altered states of consciousness on my own, and reality is far more captivating than fantasy.

Case in point, I was competing in a chess tournament this weekend hosted by a local expert popularly known as "the Octopus," a name he acquired by playing exhibitions against multiple players simultaneously. The Octopus's tournaments are fun because they are unrated, so I can let my mind wander down various rabbit holes to explore creative possibilities that I wouldn't ordinarily pursue. After winning my first round, it fell upon me to play the Octopus himself, whom everyone presumed would win our game and the tournament. The few times I had managed to beat him were in speed games of five minutes per person, but this was to be a pitched battle with no refuge found in a clock flag. As we played I saw the pieces and the board in a way I never used to, a galaxy of possibilities now laid bare to someone previously blind to them. He was tightening the noose around my king, so rather than die a slow death fending him off, I sacrificed my knight near his own king -- which opened up a file for my rooks to come after him. Before long he sacrificed his own knight to defend himself, and next thing I knew the position was drawn. I won my remaining games, but the Octopus drew again when playing against another expert, so at the end of the day I finished first and the Octopus second. This was the completion of unfinished business from three years ago, when I arrived in Missoula and won an Octopus tournament without having to play the man himself.

This was also the realization that reality and its workings fascinate me more than fantasy ever could. I had a brief conversation with a young man also competing in the tournament, and we shared stories about how unlocking the key to stronger chess is so much like unlocking the key to languages, engineering, martial arts, and just about any other endeavor. We catch brief glimpses of the mind of God, the ordered genius behind all things, and we feel divine. No flight of fancy could ever compete.