The Game of Life

  • by Trish Berg
  • August 14, 2013
  • 358
                        
Struggling with loads of laundry, clutter in the kitchen and chaos in your life? Stress can easily steal our joy. Trish Berg reminds us to simplify the small stuff and find Joy in the Journey. When I was little, I loved playing the Game of Life. We used to visit Grandma and Grandpa Cipollone at their Mastic Beach house and we spent most summer evenings playing The Game of Life around their old, Formica kitchen table in the old drafty kitchen. Through this Milton Bradley icon, I discovered a lot more about life than I could have ever realized at ten years old. We bought this board game several years back, and have spent time playing it with our own children. I don’t think life has changed much in the past thirty-five years. Well, the board game, anyway. The board still looks the same, the bridges still don’t stay in place, and the little peg people still don’t snap into their car seats any better than they did when I was ten years old. You would have thought by now, someone would have worked out all the kinks. But like real life, sometimes the kinks are what make life interesting. When we play, I get to travel the path ahead of me in my little yellow car, feeling young again. My children all worry about who they will marry, and how many children they will have. Most of the time they seem to favor starting their career first over going to college, so I guess patience and delayed gratification are still virtues we need to teach our children. It is amazing to realize that in the board game of Life, when you “have a baby,” you draw a life card which adds anywhere from fifty thousand dollars to two hundred and fifty thousand dollars to your bank account. I don’t think anyone handed me any money when I delivered any of my four children. Kids give you many things in life, like Velcro hugs, sloppy kisses, and more love than you could ever imagine. But, the last time I checked, having and raising children was draining my bank account, not adding to it. Another funny thing about the game of Life was the astronomical amount of money you accumulate. I mean, what’s a half million here and there when you have to hire a jockey for your racehorse, or attend a Hollywood movie premier. It was funny, when a few nights later I sat down to reconcile our very real checking account and pay our very real bills, and I began to miss those hundred thousand dollar bills. Too bad they are orange, and probably recognizable by any decent bank teller. Guess there would be no race horse or movie premier for me this week. I’ll just stay home and raise my four little pegs, I mean children. Although the game we played was pretend, the lessons I learned were very real. I learned that I can stay up past midnight and not turn into a pumpkin, and that giggling at silly things can be fun. I learned that little children do worry about how their lives will go, and that there is a little girl inside every mom, even me. Although I may not have discovered the secret of life, I did learn that life is a lot simpler than we make it out to be, and joy is found in time spent rather than dollar signs. It did not take a movie premier to bring joy to five precious girls. All it took was some microwave popcorn, a board game, and time spent together.


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