Have you heard the expression:
“To the victor belong the spoils.”
In the old days, the soldiers who won a war had license to pillage the villages. The winners could take anything they wanted. They stole. It was considered that they had the right. It was considered that taking from another made the winner notable and worthy.
Spoils, in this case, mean the winnings. The winner gets the winnings. That makes sense only in the world because the thinking is that a winner triumphs, so he must win something. In Truth, whatever a victor’s winnings may be, he hasn’t won anything. The world says he won. What he has won may be nothing except a few pats on the back and a swelling of his ego. This is a poor profit from winning. The victor may have the wool pulled over his eyes. He has been fooled. Of course, people fool themselves. The idea of winning can become insatiable.
This idea of being the foremost reminds Me of Sleeping Beauty’s wicked stepmother who had to be the Fairest in all the land. She had to stand out. If she had to be the winner, others had to lose. She plied a certain kind of war. Her life certainly was made up of selfishness. In such a case, what can be won but controversy?
Nothing wrong with a good-hearted good-spirited playing of a game. Play well. One team won, the other lost, so the world says, yet both teams have played well. Congratulations!