It doesn’t seem to matter whether or not you are a Sore Loser, earlier in life, whether or not you like games. At some point in time, you find yourself playing again.
It may be having your own junior players or joining ones in other families. It may also be needing to do something with dead time on journeys, wet days, being poorly, and the like.
I have come to learn that there is a space for games – and that games can in fact be fun.
For both sides.
I don’t know that I really became a Good Loser when I was younger. But one thing changed, with the passing of time. I became a Senior Player – needing to steer junior players through their own struggles with losing, and with winning.
I had an opportunity to demonstrate what it might look like to win (gracefully), what it might look like to lose (hopefully also gracefully) – or even to draw.
Part of the fun, as a Senior Player, is seeing junior players through the prism of the game. Their involvement, their enjoyment of turning the tables on the adult.
Their excitement at moving on – whether being able to play fully on their own, or simply mastering how to be able to move a figure on a board and count at the same time.
It is so much more about them, and so much less about the game. And it is definitely about the time we spend together as a result.
All of the games I’ve included this month are ones that we play. Maybe not constantly, but all of them have had their place in the last few years. All of them are ones in which it is no hardship to be the Loser – ones which can even make it easier to accept losing.
Part of me doesn’t take on the big strategists, when it comes to games. Playing with junior players levels the playing field for me too, and that is good, for an ex-Sore Loser.
What I love, perhaps the most, is the opportunity for inventiveness that games provide. I like the regular games we play a lot – I kind of have to – but I also love the ones that change every time, like balloon football or games on a tray.
I learn, too, from Junior Player, who is fearless in inventing new games. And who responds, eagerly, when I invent one or two back.
And that will do for now for games. Time to shut the lid – and find a new writing topic for next month.