The Shell Game......

Imagine for a moment, if you will, a twist on the shell game. This time there are four shells, and no ball. Each shell, when lifted, reveal a characteristic instead.

Sometimes the game is played daily; sometimes the shells don't reveal new traits or characteristics for quite awhile, and there have been days where I've watched them change personality on multiple occasions!

Your quadrants are:

1---Northwest
2---Northeast
3---Southeast
4---Southwest

...based on watching the game from outside its board. Remember, in this version the shells themselves never move, they, when lifted, only reveal the current traits of the one they represent.

For many years, the game, though always unpredictable on final outcomes, did not have any real dramatic shake-ups. That is, until one day (Dec 3, 2005), one shell offered a new rule to the game never tried before. This time, for the first time, the shells themselves would move.

And so, 30-some days later, the four shells, some with more fear and dread than others, began the process. One shell did not move, interestingly enough. #2 stayed in the Northeast. #1 left the Northwest for the Southeast. #3 moved slightly from Southeast to Southwest. Finally, #4 left the Southwest to anchor the Northwest.

Believe me when I tell you this---in the months since the move, watching the "new" version of the shell game has produced massively different results in some, and rock steady results in others. Looking at the doorway of the board, you would enter on the West side. Immediately you would encounter #4. Turn right and walk and you are with #3. Around a quick corner, just a few steps, brings you to #2.

But, however, had you, after seeing #4, went straight ahead several steps, you'd be in the Northwest with #1. But here is a key point---#1 and #2's quadrants are against the wall of the board, subconsciously suggesting to a visitor, longer escape. If you walk into a room, for example (let's go to the office cubicle phenomenon, shall we?), chances are after meeting #4, you would be more likely after looking at the lay of the land, to move right toward #3, then also greet #2 upon discovering him/her.

Meanwhile, #1, who can be clearly seen by the person walking in, does not receive interaction usually, unless someone has a specific reason to head to the Northwest Corner (is that like the Northwest Territory??)

So, let's review.

#1---Is seen at the entry point of the board, but more times than not is bypassed in order to see others easily available in more open spaces.

#2---Isn't seen at entry point, so someone who likes to keep to themselves would probably want a lifetime contract to that location. But, they also will see some people with usually a moment to prepare, and said person knows when someone comes straight into the Northeast, they mean business. It's like, I'm going to Hawaii for Hawaii, I'm not stopping in Kansas City and fooling myself.

#3---The most strategic, most open player in the game. They can see both Northeast and Southwest, and everyone entering the board, with a suave move of the head. This position allows for more communication, and, if the player should so choose, more power, being able to grasp the landscape very well.

#4---The Southwest needs to be ingenious by nature in this game, because the player is stuck with having spectators arrive directly behind them. They continually pray none ever enter with a meat cleaver. But, the Southwest does have the huge advantage of being able, if they so choose, to be the first one and/or the last one to communicate with a spectator, depending upon whether their characteristics of communication are grandiose or not.

Now, we've analyzed the shells as people, in a room, and how where they are affect their workings with outsiders, or "spectators".

Now to the real Shell Game. What has changed since the shells moved for the first time ever?

#1---The move from Southwest to Northwest has found the shell showing us more and more periods of frustration, lack of communication, and a feeling of actually not being a part of the Shell Game any longer. Sometimes the shell lifts and an "SOS"-type signal is bellowed. Sometimes, there are glimpses of the former personality traits shown us by the shell when it was known as #4.

#2---is #2. No move brings this shell the greatest advantage since the game was resumed after the move. The shell reveals much of the same traits as before, but they're not all the same. Characteristical change around #2 has caused #2 to act, react, and thus, present new glimpses when the shell is lifted.

#3---Arguably the recipient of the most advantageous move, yet, for the most time, the shell has revealed continued traits from its stint in the corner at #1. Going though from, yelling to the shell across the way, to actually seeing and more easily communicating to the Northeast and Southwest, has brought a mixed bag of new characteristics previously not revealed by the shell.

#4---What once was Southeast loses some vision in the Southwest, but makes up for it in other ways. In fact, spectators have pointed out that #4's oral communication skills, a strong personality in the Southeast, have become even stronger in the Southwest. Hanging with a shell never previously seen can do that. Plus, it's a pretty fair piece of board real estate, as mentioned before; the slightly more open, and much more accessible quadrants, are Southeast and Southwest.

So, in the final analysis, taking a typical day out of the hat (..or shell) to get a random sample of what the shells reveal, we might find....

#1---pensive, occasionally communicating but most times not, feeling isolation due to how the board is built, splitting the quadrants with high walls so that the four shells will never be able to see each other at the same time during the game.

#2---strong, yet weary, determined in work and not accepting mediocrity.

#3---in the center of the action, sometimes a good thing and sometimes a distraction; some days filled with laughter, others filled with silence, and some days both (admit it, YOU'VE had days like that, too!) Also professional. The shell shows that trait alot.

#4---Happy go lucky; not in the work sense, the personality sense. Orally communicates fluently, expresses frustration, and is the shell most keenly aware of the signs which would say to #4 what the other shells will reveal at the end of the game.


So, there you have it. The Shell Game, for the 21st Century. I'm sure you know by now the term shell is a "shell" for the real analysis. Where do you play The Shell Game?