February 29, 2016

Max’s Musings

Moleston-Head-colorBy Max Molleston

Major  holidays  this  month  deserve  our attention.  Long  standing  celebration  of  an Irish heritage, Saint Patrick’s Day.  Of   greater significance,  the  Christian holiday , Easter, on  the 27th. Agriculture tradition holds one specific date,  March first, when  tenant farmers  agree with owners  to stay on a  place, or move family and belongings  to work another farm. The  grand excitement  of holiday gifts is well past us now, but  some small presents find a way to repeated use.

The last few years  my wife,  Rhoada  has put  small  gifts  like crazy-eight card decks to work, helping our grandchildren  into thinking, as opposed to growth of imaginational play with dolls and toy trucks. As a child on an Iowa  farm, she  watched, learned  and played cards, enjoying  the higher values. Thoughts and words  are  great  helpers on the  path  to  remembering. Note some personal consequences building  within this poem submitted to the Mississippi Valley Poetry Contest a couple decades ago. The  poet, Barbara  Schweitzer,  of North Smithfield, Rhode Island.

Playing Hearts
We kids cut our teeth on diamonds, our hearts
on  spades and clubs. Our first houses weren’t made
of brick or straw but with a deck of cards.
Jokers were wild, aces were high, we played
for high stakes, as if our lives were on the line,
and, of course they were, each time we shuffled
the fifty-two chances to fail or be blind
to each other’s feelings or needs ,
to muffle kindness or care, to unlove each other,
and we did it so well, we went on to higher
achievements like that, each with our own misnomer
and sense of ourselves as queen, king, or joker,
depending entirely on the luck of the draw,
when we were born, and the jungle’s heartless law.

Many of us consider Hearts a grand and harmless kids  game where  children  may  learn some  arithmetic  values and begin to recognize face card differences. And, take an early peek into aspects of competition. Do we show some disagreement becoming bored or not fully understanding a process?  Observing my grandchildren a couple of years playing card games as their  grandma leads and instructs lovingly, one of them may “flame out” not getting the gist of the game, or frustrated after losing too many times to a sibling, in  the midst of  loud protests and maybe some tears.

Our grandson Robbie is eleven, the twin girls, Sydney and Jamie, are six. They are competitive on many levels children find to act out. Do adults  move likewise, searching  for  direction  within  issues and  situations? Of course!  Many moments and some longer stretches of life experience  become impacted by games people play. As Barbara  Schweitzer put  it, “each of us with our own  misnomer and  sense of  ourselves  as  queen, king, or joker depending entirely  on the luck of the draw, when we were born , and the jungle’s heartless law.”

Please  join  me  here  in  April, for fresh air  and  sunshine I want to bring  your way.

Filed Under: Humor

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