The High Ace

In certain games of cards, the ace is the highest of cards, ultimate to even the king. In other games of cards, the ace is the lowest of cards, inferior even to the two. In some card games, such as blackjack and poker, the player is able to decide whether he will use the ace as the high card or the low card. In still other games, like rummy, the player can employ the ace as the high and low card simultaneously.

But the ace is always the ace. It can be the highest card, the lowest card and even the highest and the lowest card at once, but it never becomes another card. In other words, the ace has a consistent identity but an inconsistent value.

Human beings are similar. While a specific person never changes personas, a person can lessen or improve his own value; his significance to his team, his friends, his family and anyone else with which he interacts can change from day to day and even from moment to moment. The beauty lies in the simple fact that although the ace’s value is determined by the rules of the game in which it is being used, a human being is empowered through his mindset to determine his own value. As your team’s ace player, your classroom’s ace student or your family’s ace member, you and you alone can determine whether you will bring the highest value or the lowest value to your life. You can choose whether you will be the high ace or the low ace.

Too often, human aces – human beings – do not have a predictable value. Coaches, teachers, parents and friends cannot rely on the individual to be of high value or know in advance that he will be of low value. Regularly, human beings are of the highest value and the lowest value at virtually the same time and in the same place. This mental and emotional volatility makes it difficult for teammates, classmates, friends and family members to rely on you to be your best.

In a card game, the value of the ace is determined by the rules of the game and perhaps the decisions of the cardholder. The value of the human ace is not similarly determined; instead, the value of the human ace is contingent solely upon the mental toughness and emotional fortitude of the individual. You control you! The rules of baseball, your classroom or your parents do not determine whether you are of great value to those around you or of diminutive value. You, and only you, decide.

Sure, umpires and coaches will make calls and decisions with which you disagree; teachers will give you grades you believe unjust and assign work that you believe is pointless; your parents will make rules and set expectations that you deem unfair. But you do not have to shrink under these adverse circumstances; you are not relegated to being a low ace. You can decide. Umpires, coaches, teachers, parents, friends and siblings are empowered to do whatever they want to do, but that does not oblige you to a preordained negative reaction. They can do whatever they want to do. And you get to decide what you will do in response. You choose –

Be the High Ace!