I was out playing games last night with a wild crowd: Episcopal Church Women. There were about twenty of us, split into two groups, playing The Five Second Rule.
The gist of the game is this: At each turn, you’re to give three correct responses within five seconds to a prompt.
Some prompts are quite easy. (Name three foods you expect to find at a Thanksgiving meal.) Duh.
Others are more difficult. (Name three parts of a car engine.)
Some are quite specific. (Name three characters from Game of Thrones.) So that if, like me, you’ve never watched a single episode, you’d have no idea how to answer.
Some prompts seem open to interpretation. (Name three Chinese restaurants.) Are we looking for nationwide chains like P.F. Chang’s or would a years-defunct local restaurant be correct also?
I’ve played games over the years including many board games when my children and grandsons were young. And I recall playing games with adults who took winning very seriously. When people’s main focus is winning instead of having fun, it sucks the joy of playing out of the atmosphere.
We all participated in much joy last night. Our group ranged in age from 23 to 90 with a bunch of 30-70-somethings in between. We chose NOT to keep score and after a couple of rounds, didn’t even set the timer.
When someone got stuck on “name three Jacksons,” one of the women attempted a seated impression of Michael Jackson to help her. (I know you think this was me, but it wasn’t.)
And when another of us was stymied in naming a third type of shark, I began loudly humming the Baby Shark song. While a bona fide ichthyologist might seriously question “Baby Shark” being classified as a “type of shark,” our group readily accepted it as a correct response!
In thinking back, it was clear that at first most of us felt a little nervous about giving wrong answers. Who wants to be wrong in public?! But soon we relaxed and were able to admit when we had absolutely no clue to any answer, let alone three. That happened to me when I got the prompt to “name three Big East schools.” It turned out that no one else at our table knew them either. (For the record, they are Butler University, University of Connecticut, Creighton University, DePaul University, Georgetown University, Marquette University, Providence College, St. John’s University, Seton Hall University, Villanova University, and Xavier University.)
This story may seem like an odd choice for me to hold up as an example of women supporting other women. It WAS just a game, after all.
But important life lessons don’t always have to be world-changing moments. Actually, more often than not, life lessons can be found in the small acts we experience as part of our daily lives. In our busyness, we can miss them. Let’s endeavor to pay closer attention.
