Doing Life

Another Way for week of April 22, 2022 by Melodie M. Davis

Doing Life

Two of our grandsons (and their parents—important people!!) visited recently and we got out our old game of Life. The grandsons had never played before (ages 5 and 8) and we had probably not played in 20 years. So we were a bit rusty and also intrigued and fascinated by the salaries offered and the expenses of raising those little plastic stick children that you plug into the back of your six-seater minivan. Reaching the goal of a million-dollar nest egg, though, seems about as far off now as it did 20 years ago.

The five-year-old soon bowed out and played nicely by himself as five of us entertained ourselves with what we children found to be an exciting board game back in the day. The creator of the game of Life, Reuben Klamer, died last fall at the age of 99, two years older than my mother who also died last fall. The game has gone through various incarnations and versions.

On the TV game show, Jeopardy, recently there was a Final Question phrased something like “A game that can be played by literally everyone on earth.” I begged to disagree with the Jeopardy question writers because while technically it can be played all over the world, I think residents of Antarctica, farmers in Iowa, miners in various countries of Africa, or the Australian outback would have trouble connecting with the North American suburban setting of the game.

After doing some online research, I have an inkling of where the question writers came up with that phase “can be played by literally everyone on earth,” which was first used in marketing the game. I understand the idea that Klamer was playing with—that life is something that “every single person experiences, so the market … was literally everyone on earth,” as New York Times quoted the maker (September 20, 2021). The Milton Bradley game company had earlier invented a game called the “Checkered Game of Life” which “rewarded virtue and punished vice.” Klamer’s Life game didn’t include much about vice, but as the game evolved over the years in various versions, playing options included cards that rewarded players for their community-building and charity efforts—that help build a more rewarding life.

As we moved our little vehicles around on the board, a different kind of “reckoning” (as you do at the end of the game) occurred for me as I thought about my age now and how young I was when we played with our daughters. And how VERY young I was when I played with my sister’s homemade Life game. (She concocted game boards for Life, Clue and Concentration!). Now I have lived through many of the seasons of real life: choosing a career, landing a job, a marriage partner, having children, grandchildren, buying a home, paying taxes, collecting a salary, donating to charities.

What a gift we’ve been given: one solitary life to live as we choose—but having no choice about where we were born or to what parents. Those of us with Christian parents are blessed to have been given the chance to grow up in a loving atmosphere. Of course, not all Christian parents choose well though: meting out abuse of many kinds, emotional instability, parents who have wrong ideas about what it takes to raise children. Kids as they grow up also bear responsibility in choosing wisely—steering clear of drugs or friends and places that drag them down. Heartbreak, trauma, and bad choices occur in the best of families and the best of locations.

Our hearts must go out now to those in the worst of circumstances such as war, famine, pandemic, losing homes as refugees, and natural disasters. God loves all and though we don’t understand how these terrible things are afflicting so many, we pray and pour out our hearts for all in harms’ way in this journey through life. Amen.

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What memories does this stir for you?

Did or do you have the game of Life? What was/is your favorite board game? (Candyland is one I always refused to get our daughters… not my fav.)

Comment here or share with me at anotherwaymedia@yahoo.com or Another Way Media, P.O. Box 363, Singers Glen, VA 22834.

Another Way is a column by Melodie Davis, in syndication since 1987. She is the author of nine books. Another Way columns are posted at FindingHarmonyBlog.com a week after newspaper publication.