Filled with stories of hope, inspiration, and perseverance from 40 countries, If Life Is a Game ¿ These Are the Stories, is a treasury of tales that open your heart and uplift your spirit. The stories reinforce the "rules of being human" that have circumnavigated the globe for 30 years! Quotes such as Leo Rosten's reflection that "the purpose of life is not to be happy-but to matter, to be productive, to be useful, to have it make some difference that you have lived at all" add a special quality.Wisdom rings through every precious, heartfelt slice of life in If Life Is a Game ¿ These Are the Stories, including passages by Franklin D. Roosevelt, Maya Angelou, and Desmond Tutu. The storytellers range in voice and locale-from the United States to Nicaragua, from South Africa to Romania, from Israel to Japan. Whether the setting is local or exotic to the reader, the experience shared in each story seems deep and familiar. These stories are a balm for the friction in today's world.