Games

Halloween 2011

Last night I went to my monthly poker party. This was a tournament that has been going on for 10 months and last night was the last game of the year. In 10 games I have been last place a couple of times and first place a couple of times. I either do very good or very bad, but it is fun any way it goes. We don't play for much money, $15 is how much we pay each game and then the person that finishes first gets much money, about $50, then less and less until the fifth place. We played 10 games and I came in fourth place. I got $75. Then this afternoon I played Settlers of Catan with the same group of people. (there were 20 in the poker tournament) When I lived overseas people didn't understand why adults played games. In fact, a few years ago I brought some Korean friends of mine to Sarah's softball game on a Saturday afternoon. They asked me why Sarah was playing a game, shouldn't she be studying! They were serious, they see no reason for games. I asked them what adults do for fun and they said, "drink". I asked them if they do anything else, and they said no. When I was in Korea I saw that the mother would often take the kids to the park or to events, and the fathers would go drinking with their friends. I think that has changed these days, at least I hope so. When my kids were younger we would often bring out board games to play; Life, Clue, Flinch, or even card games. I love just spending time with people playing games. There doesn't have to be alcohol involved to have fun, in fact when there is alcohol it sometimes reduces the fun. I think games help bring people together, increases strategy thinking, and is good clean fun.