Gary the Chess Piece
Gary the Chess Piece
02:38
March 12, 2022
Description
Part 1 of 5. Inside a dusty workroom, an old craftsman held up a chess piece to the window. He rotated it in the sunlight and inspected its every detail. “Perfection,” said the craftsman. He added it to the set he had been building. Sixteen grey pieces sat on his worktable, all handmade and almost ready for sale. The craftsman felt very satisfied with his designs. He was ready for the final stage of the process. He picked up one of the pawn pieces and said, “What about you, my little friend? What colour would you like to be?” He reached for his paint brush, dunked it into glass of water and then into a container of paint. The grey pawn received a heavy coating of shiny white paint. Fast-forward several years into the future. After repeated use and abuse, that little pawn’s proud white colour had faded. Areas of his original grey were visible. Because of this, whenever players assembled their chess set, they left this little grey-white pawn to the side. “Uhm, is that yours or mine?” said the white player. “It doesn’t matter. Put it back in the box and choose from the others,” said the black player. This little plastic pawn’s name was Gary.
Podcast Channel
Being a Cloud
Author