|
 |
|
|
Winning is not everything
By Jim Murdoch
My wife and I have been married for twelve years and we've never played a game. One of the things she brought with her when she moved in was a pack of cards, "in case we get bored", which amused me no end. We still have the pack. It's sitting in a drawer in my office right now along with two other packs that we've acquired along the way, an X-Men 3 pack and a 2000AD pack; they came free with the SF magazine I subscribe to. All three remain unopened. For my birthday one year she bought me a limited edition of Monopoly based around Garfield, who I love; that also still has the cellophane on it and we've had it for a good four or five years. Eventually it'll end up on eBay. I would have sold it sooner but I'm still sentimentally attached to it. The reason we have never played any game is that we are both very competitive people and playing simply wouldn't be any fun. I've never been able to play for fun. I play to win. What's the point in playing unless you hope to win? I know the answer is, to have fun, but I've never been able to get into that mindset. It's the same with rules. What's the point having rules if you're going to break them left, right and centre? About fifteen years ago a few friends persuaded me to get involved in a game of Trivial Pursuit. The reason for my invite was to beat a woman called Helen who none of them had been able to best. So we played and we were literally neck and neck until the last question which I got right and won the game. Everyone else was delighted but things were never quite the same between Helen and I after that and, had I known that, I might have let her win. It wasn't that she was a bad loser because she was gracious in defeat but there was no talk of a rematch. I often pass comment on the metaphoricalness of the most ordinary of words. Take the word 'beat' for example. I beat Helen. But I felt as if I'd given her a beating. Metaphorically I suppose I had and perhaps why I felt so bad about it goes back to something that was hammered into me as a child: "You don't hit girls." I'm sure there will be those out there who will argue that as long as the playing field is even then that's an outdated attitude and the fact is that it was Helen's intellect that had kept her winning; in that respect we were equals. It was a fair match, the rules were strictly adhered to and I should have been pleased with the outcome but winning isn't everything. Nowadays I play games against computers, so does my wife and strangely enough winning doesn't mean as much any more. My preference is for simple games like Tetris or Snake. I play to distract myself from other things. Winning is no longer an issue although I still like to win if I'm being honest. Really most of the time I'm simply out to best my previous score. So, I suppose, I've found my ideal opponent – myself.
|
The website of author Jim Murdoch
PLEASE VISIT THE CONTRIBUTOR'S WEBSITE
No reactions yet.
Please login or sign up to rate this intel.
Please login or sign up to add a comment.
The copyright for this content entitled "Winning is not everything" has been specified by the contributor as:
Creative Commons Attribution-No Derivative Works 3.0
Details 
This content may be copied and distributed (but not modified), as long as the original author is acknowledged with a link back to the content page.
If you use this content according to the license specified, you must link to the following URL:
http://jimmy4559.qondio.com/
|
 |
May, 2012
2008
January, February, March, April, May, June, July, August, September, October, November, December
2009
January, February, March, April, May, June, July, August, September, October, November, December
2010
January, February, March, April, May, June, July, August, September, October, November, December
2011
January, February, March, April, May, June, July, August, September, October, November, December
2012
January, February, March, April, May
|
|
Not a member yet?
Qondio is a powerful network for making it online. If you have a website to
promote, we can help.
Sign up and get in on the action.
|
|
Welcome to Qondio! Discover the awesome power this network can deliver by going to our About page. Or you could skip straight to the Sign Up form.
|
|
