February 29, 2016
Max’s Musings
By 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
Trackback URL: https://www.50pluslife.com/2016/02/29/maxs-musings-22/trackback/