I've been away for a good chunk of the summer, and I've missed FUMBBL! I decided to scan through some blogs to brush up on the latest tactical advances and so forth, and stumbled on upon a real gem. As I am starting to remember now, sometimes a game will present you with a frustrating experience - the kind of experience that cause even the most even keeled members of our community to start throwing chairs around (maybe with some choice words for the referee to boot).

For those moments when you want to cough up your chi and strangle someone with it, try to remember these classic Taoist techniques for mindfulness, which I will simplify and paraphrase below:

Despite being confronted with cruel and unethical behavior - remain calm. Your opponent has an equal right to have fun. Remember, no matter how frustrated you are, you should not break site rules. Instead, Consider concessions. Concessions (the legal type) are fun for everyone, unlike expressing frustration at being subjected to cruel and unethical treatment. That merely entitles your classy opponent to gang foul on Turn 16 your prone menz, and may even earn you a spot on your friend's blacklist.


For further reflection, I leave you now with the eerily serendipitous first passage of the Tao Te Ching:

The tao that can be told
is not the eternal Tao
The name that can be named
is not the eternal Name.

The unnamable is the eternally real.
Naming is the origin
of all particular things.

Free from desire, you realize the mystery.
Caught in desire, you see only the manifestations.

Yet mystery and manifestations
arise from the same source.
This source is called darkness.

Darkness within darkness.
The gateway to all understanding.