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All Pawns, All Kings

Steven Barnes
3 min readSep 17, 2019

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Fancy what a game of chess would be if all the chessmen had passions and intellects, more or less small and cunning; if you were not only uncertain about your adversary’s men, but a little uncertain also about your own; if your knight could shuffle himself on to a new square by the sly; if your bishop, at your castling, could wheedle your pawns out of their places; and if your pawns, hating you because they are pawns, could make away from their appointed posts that you might get checkmate on a sudden. You might be the longest-headed of deductive reasoners, and yet you might be beaten by your own pawns. You would be especially likely to be beaten, if you depended arrogantly on your mathematical imagination, and regarded your passionate pieces with contempt. Yet this imaginary chess is easy compared with the game a man has to play against his fellow-men with other fellow-men for his instruments.”

George Eliot (via Nancy Lebovitz)

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The quote above is great, because you can start within yourself, broaden outwards, and understand much of our world in a single insight.

  1. Love yourself
  2. Love one other person
  3. Understand history without guilt, blame or shame
  4. Avoid Trolls. Nurture your tribe
  5. Win with integrity

Let’s see how the first three steps fit together here.

IF you start with loving yourself, you will have the courage to look deeply into your life…

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Steven Barnes
Steven Barnes

Written by Steven Barnes

Steven Barnes is a NY Times bestselling author, ecstatic husband and father, and holder of black belts in three martial arts. www.lifewritingpodcast.com.

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