Playing the Angles

On my first Kindle Fire tablet back in 2013 one of the first games I installed on it was 8 Ball Pool.  It is what it says it is: a pool game, as in the kind where you hit balls with a cue. I don’t have nearly enough room or money for real life pool and I’d suck at it anyway, so this was the next best thing.  And in the lower-rent halls you get guidelines to have an idea of where the ball will go when you hit it, something you don’t get in real life.

Of course like most games these days it’s “free to install” but then there are a lot of mini-purchases you can make for better cues, coins to bet with, and cash to buy upgrades.  There are also mini games like a Wheel of Fortune-type wheel, scratcher tickets, and boxes that contain coins or cue pieces.

Like with Candy Crush sometimes I probably spent too much on the mini-purchases and so I didn’t install the game on my second Kindle Fire.  That Fire was junk and I finally got so mad at how slow and useless it was that I threw it against a wall and broke the screen.  I went back to the original Fire and guess what?  The 8 Ball game still worked; I had all the coins and cues I’d had before I quit playing.

It didn’t take long to get back up to speed on the game.  At least for me.  Because the thing is, I never was that good.  I can do pretty well on the basic shots, but the steep angle shots remain a problem for me.  And the fancy bank shots I make on accident more or less.  Which is why I can’t really play the more advanced levels without guidelines and against better players.  Mostly I just putter around in the Miami hall playing 9 Ball for 100 coins.  It makes the coins last longer and most of the time the competition isn’t all that advanced.  (9 Ball is a different game from 8 Ball with a lot of different rules that are actually more fun, IMHO.)

Anyway, pool is kind of like writing for me and a lot of other people.  No matter how long you try at it, your talent and skill is only going to take you so far.  Just like I have trouble with those steep angles or bank shots, I’m probably never going to have the skills to win a Pulitzer Prize.  There’s only so much you can do.

I’m being fatalistic, but also realistic.  I think it’s true for everyone that there is a max level to your talent and ability.  A lot of mush heads on critique groups would probably disagree and say, “You can do anything if you try hard enough!”  And maybe point out that one success story that proves the rule.

But really there’s no shame in it.  Not everyone can be as good as Paul Newman in The Hustler--not even Paul Newman.  Not every basketball player can be as good as Michael Jordan or LeBron James.  Not every football player can be Tom Brady.  (Thank God.)

That doesn’t mean you should just give up.  You can still have fun.  Like I said, I still play pool even though I’m not great at it.  It’s fun--most of the time.  When I lose 8 games in a row it’s not as much fun but most of the time it’s fun.

In other sports there are plenty of guys who make good careers as role players.  3 point shot specialists or defensive specialists in basketball.  Pinch hitters, middle relievers, and utility players in baseball.  Special teams players and backup quarterbacks in football.  Penalty killers, backup goalies, and goons in hockey.  The guys who do that stuff will never be superstars or get endorsements but they make decent money and can hang around for a lot longer than some flash-in-the-pan kid who turns out to be a bust.

It's like in acting there are plenty of actors who manage to stay in Hollywood by being "character actors" or playing villains or whatever instead of title roles.  It's certainly not what they probably dreamed of when they were kids, but it's better than the kind of actor who ends up waiting tables or doing porn.

So most of us will never win awards or have sales like JK Rowling or Stephen King.  We’ll never get movie or TV deals.  But we can still have fun and maybe make a little money.  That’s something at least.

There’s your yearly pick-me-up from the Grumpy Bulldog.