The Right Side

Like many, I have become enamored (obsessed) with the game Words with Friends.

I was introduced to it by my cousins at Christmas Dinner. While we were all supposed to be bonding, everybody was glued to their Smart / iPhones, playing each other while in the same room!

Being a “wordie” (a nerd / word person’s version of a “foodie”), I was looking forward to sharpening my word sleuthing while staying in touch with loved ones I don’t see enough.

After being creamed continuously for weeks, however, I finally figured out that this wasn’t about honing my vocabulary but mastering a game for which I did not know the rules.

My cousins were kicking my ass with totally bogus words like “eh,” “wo,” “ar,” or “zed.” I would send them messages like, “WTF is ‘gor’?” They would reply, “I don’t know! I just tried it and it worked!”

And they would get like 57 points!

So I decided it was imperative that I figure this out – not in a “Scrabble-I’m-Smart” kinda way, but an, “I better crack this nut and fast” MO!

Around this time it began to dawn on me that strategy was important. Like choosing squares that doubled my letters and tripled my words so that I would get mega points without really doing any extra work.

I was making the game work for me.

And eventually, I started winning by getting 57 points for words like “etna.”

I also noticed that the more I won, the better letters I got.

And this, ladies and gentlemen, is the American Way.

Come up with something - anything - that somebody will buy - or somehow reward you for - and pimp that baby for all it’s worth.

My approach has been all wrong.

It’s not so much about substance – being creative, doing the right thing, regarding others, working hard, playing fair. It’s about winning at all costs regardless of how.

So this is why right-brained me has been struggling to succeed in this left-brained racket.

Then I got the news that my right-brain might actually be in vogue.

A few weeks back, Oprah interviewed noted author and businessman Daniel Pink, who predicted that right-brainers will soon rule the world.

In his book, A Whole New Mind, Pink notes that the Information Age that has dominated the past few decades (AKA left-brain central) is giving way to what he terms the Conceptual Age, one in which those who have the ability to see the big picture and empathize with others will become the new movers and shakers.

Are you kidding me? Now that I have made my square-pegged, right-brained self fit into this circle, left‑brained world, y’all are gonna change the rules?

That’s right – us touchy-feely types are about to inherit the Keys to the Kingdom.

It’s time to get on the right side – of your brain, that is!

According to Pink, the number crunching, linear thinking, take-no-prisoner contract negotiating left‑brainers have been all the rage for quite awhile now. The increase in technology and outsourcing, however, has made tasks that can be automated, or completed with repetitive steps, a bit passé. They can be done quicker and cheaper elsewhere. Therefore, in order to sustain itself, our economy will require a creativity that is born out of, “art and the heart.”

So it’s not that left-brainer traits will no longer be necessary but they will no longer but sufficient.

As it turns out, it’s the traits that make us distinctly human (which, according to Pink, the Information Agers have often overlooked, undervalued, disdained, or thought frivolous) are now essential to making the world go ‘round.

Not to mention the economy flourish.

As I read this hypothesis, my eyes began to dance and I began to grin as I saw most of the characteristics that make me me noted as what this New World Order will require.

“The capacity to detect patterns and opportunities (check); to create artistic and emotional beauty (got that one, too); to craft a satisfying narrative (my specialty); to combine seemingly unrelated ideas into something new (can we say Alli’s Two Cents?);

There’s also:

“The ability to empathize with others (got that totally covered); to understand the subtleties of human interaction (my fav); to find joy in one’s self and to elicit it in others (I like to think I do that); and to stretch beyond the quotidian in pursuit of purpose and meaning (there’s the King).”

So while I don’t think we’re gonna all hold hands and sing Kumbaya anytime soon, I do think the world is hankerin’ for a realignment – the rebalancing of yin and yang; the male and female energy. For one is definitely not at its best without the other.

So for now, I get to combine my natural born right-braininess with my hard-won left-braininess and make some headway. And to all of my left-brained brothers and sisters who are cringing right now – give me a hug J