Barby picked up this board from a ‘thrift shop’ recently. Do you recognise it?

Yes, it is a (very) old version of Snakes and Ladders. A game we played as kids. With the simple roll of the dice, the game moves forward by seeking to land on the ladders (which lift you upwards) and by avoiding the snakes (which slide you downwards). I have only a faint memory of this version, in which virtues are attached to the ladder, while vices are attached to the snakes. It became something of a play-filled catechism for children—an easy, brainless game in which to teach them morals.

Gradually, over the years, the game has been scrubbed clean of virtues and vices. One looking like this became available for a season—with the words removed, but images still suggesting vices and virtues.

However, if you buy the game today, all words and images have been removed to create a game that belongs in the same simple family as Ludo.

Historical Reflection

The game has its origins in India, possibly as early as the 2nd century, as explained here. “The game is one of pure luck with no real skill or strategy. This suits its philosophical background, as it emphasises the ideas of fate and destiny.” The roll of the dice as a means of progress (and regress) fits well with the fatalism within the Hindu worldview. Afterall if this life hands you a sequence of snakes, the next life will be laden with ladders—so, “hang in there”, just accept your current fate. Things will change next time for you. Here is a picture of the game as it was played in ancient times in India:

Here is a 2min clip which adds further explanation on the historical-religious background of the game:

The game appears to have reached England in 1892, having an extreme makeover of both image and morals in order to accommodate British tastes. In 1943 it reached the USA as “Chutes and Ladders”, getting rid of the snakes to create a game that was less scary for children, with the moral teaching on offer being diluted as well.

This next bit is scarcely believable—but it is true…

Contemporary Surprise

I had this board with me when we went on a little holiday a few weeks ago. My intention was to write this blog over those days, but it didn’t happen. But I had started gathering some thoughts and things were whirling around in the back of my mind. We were staying with Mark and Anne, my brother and sister-in-law, in Tauranga. More recently I had become aware that Anne—herself a PhD in German and French literature (Grimm’s Fairy Tales, to be precise)—considered Salman Rushdie to be her favourite author. So it was no surprise to find a stacked Rushdie-shelf in the lounge.

A little reminiscent of the way some people go to their Bibles to find wisdom for life, I picked a random book off the shelf and opened to a random page and started reading. The thick little blue one (Midnight’s Children—which, yes, I really should have read by now, I know!) caught my eye and the first words on which my eyes alighted were these ones:

I couldn’t possibly have said it better myself! It is Salman Rushdie afterall…

Ethical Fun

It is no great surprise that contemporary versions of Snakes & Ladders are scrubbed clean of any reference to vice and virtue. Naming such a set of vices and virtues, universal enough to warrant creating a game, is barely possible today. Each to their own. And if that’s too hard to do, imagine trying to agree on the ‘action-consequence’ pairing that is integral to those early versions of the game…!

But that need not stop us from having a bit of fun!

With my parents and their children…

Let’s take a closer look at that first image. I counted the spaces on the board between the base of each ladder to its top rung—and from the head of the snake down to its tail. Then I imagined the childhood of my parents and wondered if this might provide a ranking of the virtues and vices they were taught—and, in all likelihood, passed on to me as a child.

The Ladders: From Thrift up to Fulfillment (44 spaces); Sympathy to Love (34); Courage to Reward (29); Penitence to Grace (19); Industry to Success (18); Patience to Attainment (18); Unity to Strength (10); Generosity to Gratitude (5); and from Confession to Forgiveness (2).

The Snakes: From Indulgence down to Illness (52 spaces); Temper to Regret (39); Conceit to Friendlessness (37); Dishonesty to Punishment (32); Indolence to Poverty (30); Mischief to Woe (28); Pugnacity to Pain (25); Disobedience to Disgrace (13); and from Ill-doing to Trouble (5).

What do you think? Do they provide a ranking? Maybe. Maybe not. Either way, they remain a pretty fair description of the moral values of the generation above mine.

It is interesting that the snakes tend to be longer than the ladders. Did you notice that? Hmmm. What might that suggest? Maybe that a person was more likely to start out being considered as inherently bad back then—just as they start out as inherently good today?

With my children and their children…

I know I’ve just said it is impossible to do because of the way society has changed around us—but humour me for a moment. Let’s shift down three generations—from my parents to my grandchildren. Think of all that they absorb in school and then in the music and movies and advertising of popular culture [NB: I watched Moana again yesterday at a grandchild’s birthday party. What an extraordinary fusion of worldviews as both (Western) individualism and (‘non-Western’, for lack of a better word) pantheism-animism combine together in little Moana’s life. I overheard a few ‘snakes and ladders’ in her conversations!].

Gathering a group of Children and Youth Workers together to have a go at creating a game of Snakes & Ladders that reflects the virtues and vices of their own generation—remembering to express each one as an ‘action-consequence’ pair—would be such a revealing exercise in cultural exegesis. Maybe a start could be made by asking which of the virtues and vices on the board above would continue—and whether the length of the ladder, or the snake, for each one would lengthen or lessen?

I am so grateful that the Christian life starts somewhere else. Not with me commending myself to God by mustering the presence of ladders and the absence of snakes in my life. But with God commending himself to me, in the life and death and resurrection of Jesus, with a love and power that can crumple the ladders and crush the snakes that creep into my life … and enable me to be free.

nice chatting

Paul