Barkeep?A glass of Pinot,&some allegorical advice please

Poststructural Pub
1

I’m not sure who’s pouring tonight, but we all know it’s the barkeeps reluctant obligation to provide counseling for nothing more than a chintzy tip. It is, of course, always appropriate for nearby patrons to chime in with their own two cents where applicable.

This story is called The Game:

I spent 20 years playing a lovely game of Parcheesi. Sometimes I stunk at it, and sometimes it was so aggravating I wanted to throw the board across the room, but all in all I loved it. Each day just knowing that the game was there to be played was the serotonin boost my brain needed to love life. Nevermind that we lost the playing tokens and had to use dried up raisins and sewing machine bobbins to mark the spaces, nevermind the roof leak that washed all the color off the board and we had to fill it in with magic markers. Parcheesi made it all worthwhile, and I looked forward to many more years of the game.

Then something kind of bad happened. The top couple layers of particle board, for some unknown reason–acid rain, cosmic radiation, who knows–chipped off about 3 or 4 years ago. The game became unplayable. Interestingly, it turned out that there was a rather boring and simple little version of Chutes and Ladders remaining on the game board after Parcheesi flaked away, and that’s the game I’ve been playing for the past few years. It’s worthy of note that this version of Chutes and Ladders does not feature smiling children. Instead, their faces are rather glum and monotonous and the game board has faded out to a sort of bluish-green.

This game board, though not what it once was, contains what’s left of the essence of my beloved game of Parcheesi, and I am committed, by deep magic, to play it until it crumbles to dust, Chutes and Ladders or not. Attempts to brighten the game with markers, or add interesting details to it, end in a disappointing fade to status quo. Naturally, I often can’t help looking with envy at other people playing lively and engaging games, but, as I’ve said, I’m committed to playing mine, and recognize that whatever delight I once derived from Parcheesi, I must now find in other non-game interests, such as skeet-shooting and smoke-signal generating.

What does it take to contentedly play Chutes and Ladders when the scruffy gold edging on the sides of the game board remind you that it used to be Parcheesi? A deliberate attitude, and a positive new philosophy.

Where have you gone to find your new ones? (Attitude and philosophy, that is!)

2

Wait, I know…this is really an allegory about your marriage, right??
Sorry to say, I have a disastrous history in that category and can’t help.
:wink:
Susan

3

I guess I’ll ask the obvious, which is, would you play a new Parchesi game? I know how many of us get attached to our particular game boards, but it it’s between a new Parcheesi and a game you don’t enjoy – which would you really rather have?

Or, you can always draw a new Parcheesi game and laminate it onto your old game board. Probably wouldn’t be too flexible afterward, but it’s worth a try if that’s what you want.

4

It’s a story about board games and attitudes.
Nothing more, nothing less.
(I should add that it’s not the board’s fault that it chipped away
to Chutes and Ladders. Health condition. Unfortunate glue or
something.)

No. See above. All I need is a bright outlook given the given set of conditions. Just wondering how other people do that.

5

… medication.

6

I wish that I had the perfect answer. Since this really isn’t about board games (Did you ever try checkers?), I would recommend talking to someone you trust or that you might learn to trust. See what they have to say.

7

Interesting.

I will assume that you are very good at this Parcheesi game having had so much time to hone your skills and understanding of the more subtle aspects of the game.
Chess is closer to my own heart than Parcheesi but a game is a game. The trouble with Chess is that if you only play with one other player over a length of time you slip into a rut of the same opening gambits, same counter attacks and usually the same result with who finally wins, or loses. A new playing partner can have a very positive effect on your overall game.New openings and assorted gambits can force you to re-evaluate your own thinking and tactics, can open new vistas never before imagined, or maybe long ago forgotten.
There are of course many ways to set about this. Online players abound, many of whom are like yourself and deeply commited to their original opponent and much loved board but feel a need, a very powerful need, to bring their skills to a new arena, to test themselves and their game in a new context. I am not suggesting that these people would want to play for high stakes, no, just a friendly game. A new game to help them break out of the old predictable move/ counter move routine.
I play a game of chess online regularly and it invigorates me no end, the fresh perspectives, the humour and wit of my opponents play, the way I am forced to think about my own regular game and how it differs from my online game has improved my playing no end.
Anything that brings an awakening of spirit, an increased awareness of the weakness in our usual game cannot be a bad thing in the long term. We all come back to our original board but seeing someone elses in all it’s raging turbulent colours can help us find the original charm in our old faded board, or so I believe anyhow.

After all, it’s only a game and it’s not the winning or the losing that matters, it’s the taking part.

Slan,
D. :slight_smile:

8

:slight_smile: nicely done, dubh :slight_smile:

9

…I doubt I can add anything helpful to Dub’s thorough analysis of your game problem…his summation renders Hoyle himself mute…but maybe there are a few small things I can chip in, as long as you’re buying; I’ll take a glass of Pinot and have a whack at this.

… you mention a kind of magic that commits you to the old chipped board… the acknowledgment of such magic makes me wonder if the board is truly not restorable. There’s no chance, of course, that the board can ever be made all shiny and smooth and brightly colored again; the ravages of time (or radiation) have changed its surface irrevocably; but I’ve heard of promising results achieved with application of new technologies in restoration… it might take a bit of research into the problem, maybe a little help from experts in wood game board restoring: artisans wise in finding and invoking the hidden magic in even the oldest and most deeply cracked wood… there may be ways to go beyond the damaged surface of the wood board, penetrate down to its core, strengthen and renew it, so while it will never look new – it’ll always have the dents and scratches from the lively games of the past – it just might be made sturdy enough to make for enjoyable play yet again.

As for the Chutes and Ladders…that particular game I’ve not played myself, but I know of many who’ve faced the phenomenon you describe, the metamorphosis into the glum faces. I’ve seen, though, that with application of large doses of patience, and a different kind of magic…over time, the glum faces on the game board find their own magic: They are eventually transformed into different beings altogether, and all the colors come back. They may have to leave the old familiar game board… fly away off, perhaps, to a checkerboard, or even a poker table, sometimes even suffer through many hands of solitaire…in order to find the magic that brings their bright color and smile back…but it happens. In that game, time is on your side.

I know, emm, you’d agree: Never underestimate the power of magic. Ultimately, the most important magic is in you: I, for one, believe that you’re already pretty darn good at skeet shootin, and your smoke signals have an élan unique to you, an élan that many other players enjoy and appreciate. There, in the end, lies your power; there you may find your love of life. Those games, too, are worth the candle.
:wink:

10

Is that Transcendental Medication ™?

Kevin Krell

11

Why yes, yes it is. :smiley:

As a long time sufferer of depression, it wasn’t until about a year ago that I finally went to see somebody about it, who in turn put me on medication for it. Nowadays, things do look and feel a lot clearer and I am able to visualize a brighter future… something that was hopelessly out of reach for me just one year ago.

12

I’m afraid of medication. It seems so permanent and artificial.
I prefer booze. :laughing:

Dub, for Coke drinking biker dude you are exceptionally perceptive.

I have a similar game board Emm. Sometimes I think the old board is my worst enemy yet I can’t get away from it. I don’t want to get rid of it. It’s so much a part of me that I cannot imagine life without it. I’m even worried that if I try to restore it as scottielvr suggests it will lose all semblence of it’s former self so in essence I have[/h] thrown it away. I haven’t found a new perspective that doesn’t cut, like a well worn mountain streambed, right back to the old viewpoint.


sigh

13

Has the board game really faded? Could it actually be the same as always but it’s the viewpoint that’s made it look faded to the point of looking like a different game?

14

You guys are phenomenal.
I was so…like, um…not sure I should even post about this, but your responses have made it worthwhile.
I’m taking the whole game set to Johns Hopkins School of Damaged Cardboard Analysis in January, where they may be able to give me some new insights into Chutes and Ladders, and possibly even patch up the board a bit.

15

[quote="kkrell

Is that Transcendental Medication ™?

Kevin Krell[/quote]


Which reminds me of the time when the Maharishi Mahesh Yogi went to a dentist to have 3 teeth pulled, but he refused any novacaine. It seems he wanted to Transcend Dental Medication.



Tom

16

Which reminds me of the time when the Maharishi Mahesh Yogi went to a dentist to have 3 teeth pulled, but he refused any novacaine. It seems he wanted to Transcend Dental Medication.



Tom[/quote]

Ouch…

17

Hararararararhar! :laughing:




I play Poker.
I play straight and I never cheat and I almost never bluff… :smiley:

18

So what time is it when you go to the dentist?? Tooth-hurty

-bada-bing-bada-boom

19

Yeah, that joke makes my tooth-hurty :stuck_out_tongue:


oh, boy, I’m going to make you a crown of Spam! :smiley:

20

Maybe even get the old Parchesi up and going!

Good luck.