[MD] The Astragaloi of Quality

[118]

Back in our youth, there was a game played on the playground.
Children would gather around and some metallic 6-tip pieces were
thrown onto the ground and rules were followed using a ball to pick
them up.  The game of jacks required the gathering of these pieces by
each player in the most adept manner.  This game has been played for
many,many, many years, and has been called by different names.
Knucklebones was one name based on the nature of the pieces, and it
was also called atragaloi.  History shows us, with its endless cycling
and continual participation, that some things never change.

Imagine the world strewn with jacks.  Each generation picks them up
and puts them into assorted boxes, depending on the rules of the time.
 Primary to the rules is the innate demand to gather and sort; such
pressure stemming from the very DNA itself, and beyond.  This
participation is unchanging, what changes are the rules of the game.
Each successive era puts forth new static rules that are agreed on in
order to play the game.  Each time the jacks are gathered, sorted, and
distributed into different containers in seemingly endless
configurations.  The jacks themselves, however, are always the same.
The underlying ingrained esoteric human experience never changes.

How many times are we to hear that the game is complete only to see
the jacks thrown to the ground yet again?  It is the game itself that
matters, there are no winners and no losers.  For the game is an
endless creation of meaning.

What wonder we create!