Matters That Matter ®

My husband and I have only lately taken to playing games…our choices are still fairly limited as are our patience to learn anything new. We don’t play RISK (taken too many after 60 years and looking for something simpler). Not Monopoly (too much risk, loss and competition). Not Bridge (to complicated). Not Hearts, or Crazy Eights, or Strip Poker…to easy, too crazy, too embarrassing.

We do play Backgammon almost every morning while we have our coffee. Great game. You can talk while you play…you can cheat if you have to…you can swear like a drunken sailor and it makes the game more fun. We play best two out of three. Sometimes we only have to play two because I can kick his ass twice in a row,  or he rolls nothing but doubles and kicks mine.

We were given a new game the other day. Seemed fairly easy and straight forward…no rule book or instructions. The game has 30 cards. Each card is printed with one word that states a personal belief or value…i.e. integrity, compassion, family, relationships, stability, etc. etc. etc. The object of the game is to start with a stack of these cards and discard one, two, three…well all of them, except the last ONE. The one you do not discard is the one THING that you value above all else.

It was easy for me to toss aside Financial Security, Fame, Affiliation, Service, Creativity. But choose between Family, Relationships, Friends…not so easy. We played 3 hands. Each time, my last card, the final answer was Relationships. I figured I could toss the Family and Friends cards and cover them all with Relationships.

3 hands, each time my husband chose Peace. “Really”, I said. “You chose Peace over Family, Friends, Relationships?”  He said, “Without Peace, you got nothing. I can’t think of anything better to hold on to.”

My husband is a man of few words. But sometimes the ones that come out of his mouth when I am least expecting them, speak volumes.

Peace…I wish for you and yours Peace to hold on to.