Game Playing

Everyone plays games, be they active, passive or sedentary.  The active ones are those where a lot of running about making sure that something goes into a certain place for scoring to happen. There is body on body taking place and much perspiration. The passive kind is when you sit with something drinkable in your right hand, if you are so inclined, and something else edible, in the left one while watching others do the fore-mentioned running about. Notwithstanding fishing or television poker.  The third kind of game is when people sit at a table, usually, and use their hands and their minds to try and win in lighthearted company. All of these games are meant to be fun events and socializing things to do. They are supposed to be pleasant, lightly competitive gatherings in which one is not working or studying or tending to somebody else's needs. There are other games that are serious, momentous, complicated and often commercial ones, where the players are paid and reputations, sometimes of nations, are at stake. The Olympics or any other game that people pay to attend or make money from, are in that category but they are really more entertainments than games. The people who play the fun games sometimes erroneously think they are not of the former type, but of the latter. To this kind of individual, a little quiet game of cards becomes blood sport. They have to win or they are thrown into misery. If you have been victimized by one of these folks, you know what I speak of. Ordinarily they are lovely people with kind hearts and generous spirits, but when they play a game, they morph into human bullies. They play to win, and to win only. If their fellow players risk being their partners, they'd better toe the mark, or there are snide remarks, groans and gnashings of teeth. This person usually spends eons of time learning all about the game and playing it repeatedly making it more a profession than mere fun, and if you are unfortunate enough to have to play with this kind of creature, you'd better wear armor. During a lovely relaxing cruise to Hawaii once, we had, at our dinner table, a gentleman who spent the entire meal ranting about his "stupid" partner in Bridge, the one who ruined all of his ship-board games. "If only he'd..." and "why didn't he..." and "what on earth was he thinking when.." became the topic of his conversation daily. None of us at the dining table, even the Bridge players present, really cared a whiff about it, and eventually he sulked off to eat alone with his dejected ego in tow. My own mother, an avid Bingo player, took that game seriously. If she did not come away with some winnings in her pocket, it was because "They must have cheated". It ruined her evening of Lawrence Whelk, to be sure, if she had not won. I know golfers who lapse into deep depression when their handicap falls. It isn't their fault, they just need new clubs. And they go out and get them. I can become very intense when it comes to getting a nice high cheesecake out of the oven, but not over a game.