re-reading, pondering, exploring

I've been carrying out the task I set for myself, which was to re-read and take notes on parts of the book that reference the bead game. One such reference was that of the last glass bead game player, a poem, which described an old man crafting a game in the sand. It noted that there were real glass beads, and that they were different sizes and each represented something symbolically, and that they were arranged in a circle.

I only elaborate on this because it led me to realize another possible direction of the game--as if I needed to add more possible directions.

I was playing with some beads of my own and trying out a bunch of stupid little games with them, with no intention of discovering anything. What I did discover, however useful I'm not so sure, was an analogy to this bead game. While playing with the beads I ended up simply throwing them around each other, made them orbit and weave around each other, came up with ways they could be juggled and ways to create patterns out of their movements. I imagine if these beads represented anything, as they do in the real game (I'm guessing), then essentially I was playing the glass bead game, albeit informal, because in a sense the game is like a complicated dance, whose participants are the separated schools of thought.