Have hearts been broken?

So what, might you ask, does someone without access to the wonderful world of Facebook do with all that free time?  Well, since coming home from school 2 weeks ago, my parents have introduced me to the game of Hearts.  It seems every summer they introduce me to a new game (last year it was Gin), and every summer I become addicted.  

Yesterday, we sat down to play, and it turned out to be one of the most eventful games yet.  For once, I was winning, and the game was nearing its end (or so we thought)…

My dad’s score was in the 90s, and it was his goal to hit 100 points and go back down to zero.  So my mom and I set out to stop him, and in our pursuit my mom hit the magic number.  I was no longer winning.  Now my dad needed only three points to hit 100 and join my mom at the top of the game, and of course he does it.  Now, not only am I not winning, I am losing.  Badly.  My only hope is to do the same thing, but being that I am so inexperienced in the game, this is damn near impossible.  But somehow, by the pure grace of God, I do it.  Now it’s anyone’s game.  But my lack of skill soon comes into play again, and I am skyrocketing towards my doom.  My mom and I are in close range of each other, with no help from my dad who loves to shoot the moon and give us 26 points (he has mastered this skill and bleeds hearts like he’s the club’s lead singer).  The end of the game is drawing near and my mom is in close range of hitting 100 again, with me not far behind, but the odds of both of us getting lucky are slim to none.  I have to stop her.  So I send the bitch her way (the queen of spades who is worth a whopping 13 points), thus putting her over 100 and ending the game.  I didn’t win, but, hey, at least I didn’t lose, right?  Wrong!  My dad wastes no time in informing me that there are only winners and losers, no in between (a wonderful thing to tell your daughter, don’t you think?).  He soon changes his mind and says that this rule only applies to games and not life in general after he realizes what he’s said.  But after spending over an hour playing the game of Hearts, my mind has started to wander to some of its parallels.

Is life like the game of Hearts?  Should we lay low and let other people take the tricks or should we play like my dad and always shoot the moon and hope to get lucky?  It really all comes down to this: is the way to success playing it safe and never taking chances or breaking as many hearts as it takes to finally reach the moon?