Whether you like the self-helpers or not, whether you find release by immersing yourself in the visual delights of violence, or whether you just want to get away from real world pressures, you stand beside a whole array of individuals who would like to step back for a moment, pull off the expressway of life and spend a few minutes in the rest stop of existence. There is no one who honestly can say they don’t need a certain amount of pressureless time away.

As I thought about that, I considered what I like to do during the day when I need a slight break and time away from assignments, reading or just getting things done. I need something that will clear my mind for a few short minutes so that I can continue on with what I am doing.

And what do I do? I play three fast rounds of regular solitaire on the computer.

It’s not a fancy version of solitaire. It is just the plain and ordinary seven cards across the top, and see how far you can go putting them all in order on top of the aces. No single game takes too long, and my fastest time is about 15 seconds. Not a massive amount of time away from the work that has to be done, but it sure means a lot to immerse oneself in a focus away from the assigned tasks.

But here is where the journey to relaxation takes a wicked little turn. As I said, we all need a little time away, and we shouldn’t be analyzing our moments of relaxation. Those moments should be pure and unadulterated. They should let us release a few tensions and get back to the job at hand.

But sometimes, our pragmatic side slips in and says, “Wow! I just noticed something as I was relaxing. I discovered X, Y or Z! Isn’t that amazing!” Perhaps we discovered a new way to approach problems, a new way to handle an obnoxious co-worker or an old method of handling your workload that you had forgotten. In the time of relaxation, a whole litany of things might work themselves into your psyche that would never have been allowed entrance if you hadn’t taken those few moments to just relax, giving yourself time to cut loose those real-world issues that bind you to pretty regular behavior and paths well trodden, letting you take off on the paths less trodden and possibly much more helpful in providing you with true peace, a little bit at a time.

So, back to solitaire, my means to move through the day by clearing my thoughts, thinking of nothing but cards, and then going back to my assigned tasks. As I played one particular game, I realized that I had missed an opportunity to place a card on another stack. I quickly moved the card, and another opportunity opened up, and with that another, then another, then another. I eventually “lost” the game, if there really is winning and losing in a game where you are doing it for relaxation.

What I did realize in this fairly innocuous game was that I had come to a much higher level of consciousness than just putting cards down for some time away from work. I had realized that we go through life missing opportunities, almost on a daily basis. We fail to ask the question that might provide us with the information to do better on a paper or an exam. We fail to speak to the person next to us in class, or in church, or at a movie, or at the bar, and that failure to act has lost us multiple opportunities for increased happiness in our lives. We fail to make a myriad of moves that influence a myriad number of other moves. And that lack of moves leaves us a little worse off in the lives we lead. We might consider ourselves happy, but what could be wrong with feeling happier.

Solitaire, a simple game played by one, provided me with a means to think about all the things we do and fail to do in regard to the world around us. Perhaps as we take moments to relax and get away from the real world, we will see glimmers of deeper meaning that can allow us not only step away from the tasks at hand but to boldly jump into new opportunities that will make our lives all the more enjoyable.

Craig Gunn is a State News guest columnist and director of the communications program in the Department of Mechanical Engineering. Reach him at gunn@egr.msu.edu.