WRITEON FOR NOV 13
sister alies.
There’s something about playing solitaire, cards or on the tablet. A game one can focus on and let other worries subside just for those few minutes. I know some folks are actually addicted to the game…or another game…but for me I have it a part of what I call my ‘brain-gym’.
I’m not too big on ‘gym-gym’ so I guess I ought to at least give my brain the chance to stay working. The stimulation and the focus, the sense of accomplishment and the tricks one learns as one plays all help me sharpen up!
I can understand how folks get addicted to screens, games, podcasts, news, and any number of movies, tv, or what else? It’s as if there is no one else around and one is drawn in. Perhaps that’s how FB and other platforms work. I’m not a subscriber but I have a better understanding of how one can be drawn out even in the midst of other folks or other activity.
Tweeting is also not on my plate but I find it fascinating that folks seem to get so much business down on tweets!
If I were more adventurous, I’d try another of the thousands of solitaire variations. I kinda prefer just the ‘regular original’ one.
My point? Well, this time of the year folks tend to be unwell and are therefore lying around a bit…playing some game to divert their worries. What is it we worry most about? In the early Christian church there were monks who lived in the desert and learned from one another. Rather than diverting themselves away from their worries they took them head on. No matter the virtue, they talked it over with their spiritual father or mother. This helped the person to grow and become a disciple. There is nothing wrong with playing solitaire or any other game if we also spend some of our time paying attention to the needs of others. Here’s a little story:
“It was said of a brother that having made some baskets he was putting on the handles when he heard his neighbor saying: ‘what can I do? Market day is near and I have no handles to put on my baskets.’ Then the brother took the handles off his own baskets and brought them to the brother, saying: ‘Here are these handles which I have over; take them and put them on your baskets.’ So he caused his brother’s work to succeed by neglecting his own.”(Ward, SLG 1986). We have so many things to be thankful for…all the folks that have done just this for us.
BLESSINGS.
