4.05.2008

Lessons from Rummikub

We've been playing Rummikub pretty regularly here at the house. I enjoy games, although I'm not particularly competitive, which I chalk up to being the youngest of a family of 5. I rarely won growing up!

Recently I've had a bit of a winning streak. Tonight I realized the probable cause has been a change in strategy. The general goal of the game is to get rid of all your tiles first. The way you get rid of the tiles is by laying them down in sets (the same # in different colors) or runs (same number in consecutive order).

In the past, I have been impatient to get the tiles off of my tray and onto the table. As a result, whenever I've had a possible combination I have played them - usually these were sets. Lately, I've begun to hold onto the tiles a little longer and try to make runs. It takes a bit of patience and a longer vision, as well as trust that there will be plenty of time to get it all out.

Tonight when we were playing, as I realized the probably reason for my winning streak, I realized there is a life lesson there. One area of personal growth for me during the novitiate (and I suspect for the rest of my life) has been learning when and how to share my truth, particularly to the powers that be or in conflict situations. Do I lay it all out there willy nilly (even if people aren't quite ready to hear it), or do I take care to wait for the more appropriate time? Or something like that....

4 comments:

Sarah said...

Hmmm... I'm hearing a lesson in this for me.
Slowly doing something when the first impulse seems to be as effective is difficult. But I guess that, until you try the slow version, you never know that it works at least as well and sometimes better.
Thanks!

Katney said...

That sounds like something we all need to learn.

Susan Rose Francois, CSJP said...

I know I certainly do!

Garpu said...

Do you ever play mahjong? (Steve and I were learning to play the Japanese rules version.) It's similar, but instead of emptying your hand, you have to make a hand, then show it. Like you mentioned, you can just claim other people's discarded tiles willy-nilly, but it's much better to have a "closed" hand, one that you don't call other tiles for. Sure teaches a person patience!