I played a game of Scrabble with mom. It has been a long time since we have played one on one. When she was in my house she always had some task I needed to do for her and we had not "played" for over a year. Scrabble has always been a favorite for us. Mom raised us on educational toys. No collecting of action figures for us. Maps, geography games. chemistry sets and hundreds of variations of word games comprised our rainy day pastimes. When I was in High School, the English teachers from my school gathered in our dining room daily for intense Scrabble games. We were "hard core"!
Just last week mom had bragged to me how she had 'won" scrabble as if it was the proof she was not demented like all those "old people".
I noticed by fourth turn that she was not "getting it." I played less competitive and more cooperative to make it fun. When she tried to play two words in one turn because she wanted to have it be that way, I had to notice. I helped her remember the rules. When she insisted that "hooky" was Hokey, I let her have it.
When we finished she had lost to me for the first time. I could not pretend to myself that she was not deteriorating mentally. Luckily mom just thinks I "got all the good letters." I heard that before.
The good news? We had fun. I will hang onto that.
May we always find the beauty in each encounter and let go of the "winning" so easily.
Amen, Amen and Amen.
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