It’s your move: token, checker, knight. Speed is urgent. Safety is paramount. Taking strategic advantage is the warrior’s way. On a game board or closing a sale or on a competitive field, it’s all the same. It’s our religion.

Blessed is the square ahead and it’s promise of safety. Blessed the exiled and those forced to wander the earth searching for the safest square ahead.

Blessed the peacemaker who invites stranger and honored guest to come in from the shadows and to sit under the vine and fig tree. Blessed the newcomer bringing olive branch and dove. Blessed the games of chance that fill the world with surprise, with surrender and with the illusion of winning.

Blessed is our first move and blessed are we at the last. Same game, same outcome for one and all.