LETTING THE CARDS FALL

Playing cards are designed in a specific order:

Two through ten, Jack, Queen, King, Ace, each in their own colors, arriving in the pack perfectly ordered, a couple of jokers thrown by the wayside.

You would think we would leave them like that—taking them out and admiring them, perfect in their unison. Instead we do violence: mashing them against one another, bending and twisting and riffling and cutting until they are all out of sorts.

Because it’s only when playing cards are out of sorts that they are useful, offering us something we need but cannot provide ourselves: randomness. 

Perfect in order, yes, but useful in disorder.

Thank you. Let’s have a great day.