We decided to stay in on Sunday night, play a board game and flirt by candlelight (yeah, energy savings and romance). The problem might be the game; I hardly ever follow the rules as written. While this is no surprise to people who know me, strangers wonder how I play games. At the consignment store, I bought a combination checkers, chess and backgammon game for a quarter. Surprise all the pieces were still intact as was the pristine rule book.
My problem with playing games with new people is that I am an overly competitive person who lives by a mantra ‘what good is playing if not to win’. I know better than scare off my honey by playing by the rules as written. I’d end up clobbering him in retaliation for taking one of my game pieces.
What to do? Rewrite the rules of course. In choosing to live my life in as sustainable way as possible, I know about cooperation. So, we started with backgammon; the dice are the luck of the draw and random chance is acceptable. Placement of the pieces according to the rules is fair and equitable. The possibility of hindering the opponent from moving by either blocking the section or removing pieces occupying a space all alone wouldn’t work for me. This mean singles could be treated with disrespect and shoved aside just for being single.
Perhaps as a game strategy the rule would make the game for interesting and increase competition. As an ethic, the rule allows for profiling and discrimination. We threw out the rule along with the rule of no sharing spaces between the two colors. I thought it discouraged companionship and the new rule was sharing if fine as long as total capacity wasn’t exceeded.
We didn’t ruin the game because we nipped my competitive streak before it could turn into a battle. I lost and I cheered his win because it was almost like I had a share in his victory. Since spending time together, sharing and bonding were the goals, we didn’t get bored with the new rules. And we discovered we work together well.
THE END
