The Rent Game

The Rent Game is a game of life and death. It drives men to both great heroics and great destruction. Civilizations rise and fall on the ability to pay rent. The Rent Game is no laughing matter, ruthless to the end and forever without escape. Because of this, its mere discussion is impassioned and vehement - such as anything is that is life and death.

There are five main groups of rent payers. Remember, this is not an easy game but the stakes never change.

1. The Rent Payer. This group is the most sparse. Because they pay their rent they are spared the angst of those who do not. This allows them to be kind and generous. The catch is they do what they want. Many are those who angry, not believing they can do what they want and still pay the rent. Because they are not open to this, they can never enter this group. They cheat themselves, causing them to lie and choose paths of liars.

The Rent Payers fight to preserve life. They rightly can see no other path to survival than to pay. They wish everyone to join them in this dream. They are always fighting for something, never against it. They fight for peace by achieving peace. Who knows peace without having paid the rent?

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2. The Lost Renter. Searchers and seekers of becoming a Rent Payer go through many stages. These times can be very dangerous but also very instructive. "Ah, see what I found to pay the rent!" they discover. When they sing this song they join in the message of the Rent Payers. But there also payments missed and one wonders if another payment will ever be made. Lost Renters often turn to drugs - both legal and illegal - to aid them in their plight.

They oscillate in their struggle, hounds of fear nipping at their heels. If they stay in this state of oscillation, they eventually tear in two no matter how many times they come back to pay the rent. Eventually the landlord loses trust. Flowers of cruelty and kindness grow side by side, but only one can grow in the end.

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3. Payer Haters. Payer Haters, no matter how much success they see are perpetually angry. This is what the Lost Renters fear to become, that over time having never found what they want they remain stuck doing what they hate - and thus become hate. Not wanting to admit their state, they forever point their finger at who they perceive should be paying their rent.

Blaming others' lack of integrity for their own lack of integrity, they seek to justify their anger in an endless loop of dissatisfaction. They often (sometimes accurately) rant on the injustices of the world to distract from their own. As time passes they lose interest on anything not centering on hate. But they know what they try to justify has no justification.

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4. Payer Deceivers. The most horrid fate of all. They appear to be paying the rent but in reality are only racking up debt. Time is not their friend as they live in dread of the day the bill comes due and they are inexorably exposed for having lived a life of deception. Those who trusted them will become outraged, banning them from the premises. This makes the Payer Deceiver very desperate to maintain the illusion as long as possible - even though that only exacerbates the problem.

Having betrayed their own lives, Payer Deceivers crusade to betray others. They are most dangerous when in positions of power. They sell the dream that becomes a nightmare that the bill will never come due. This is very appealing to those who do not wish to pay their rent and that insanity can sometimes grip an entire nation (see: Germany, Nazi). Knowing the anger to come, some are driven to entertain the landlord to keep the final bill at bay - but that makes it no less lethal in the end.

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What? You can't work in a massage parlor??

5. The Non-Payers. These are the homeless, doomed to live at the mercy of the other groups. The Payer Deceivers are especially vicious to the Non-Payers seeing the Non-Payers as a more honest version of themselves but having no vested interest to lie. The Deceivers are the most vehement and vocal in their denunciation of the Non-Payers, clinging to the illusion of responsibility they must maintain.

Payer Haters also denounce the Non-Payers though not with same need or force. They do what they hate and "get by", so why can't the Non-Payers do what they hate? Payer Haters socialize their anger, deeming it moral and responsible, and demand it as a mandate. As rapists, they have a particular hatred for justice and peace, preferring war and chaos, seemingly justified in their nihilistic view. Non-Payers to them are but cannon fodder.

Lost Renters are of two minds of the Non-Payers, on one hand understanding and on the other judgmental according to how lost they are. They will feed Non-Payers sandwiches but always demand Non-Payers "find their way", not realizing they speak of their own lost way. Non-Payers are a mirror and each reacts according to his reflection.

The Rent Payers freely share what they have with the Non-Payers. Since it came to them freely they give it freely. Also, they realize that anyone can miss a payment and to provide comfort in the hour of need is necessary to survival as a whole. Their hearts do not hang heavy carrying the weight of the world.

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Each of us must pay rent on the life given us. This has been on my mind lately. The concept of monetary rent is an illusion we created as a substitute for the real thing and as an expression for that obligation we don't always meet. With a handful of meaningless papers we exclaim, "I'm paying my rent!" hoping to confuse false rent with real rent and climb the mountain of morality. One day we'll drop this need for a charade of paying false rent and then we'll truly be paying the rent.