Make the Best

OK,OK.  I admit that I was getting a bit cocky.   The Scrabble wins were coming easily my way.  Yes, I was winning. A lot.  The words appeared like magic on my rack.  I had so many seven letter words that I couldn't use them all.  Vowels and consonants appeared in perfect proportion.  I was smug.

Then Regina won. Good for her, I said.  Then John beat me twice.  Kellie and Jj, Ron and Juan followed suit.  I dreamed of drowning in a sea of simulated wooden tiles....humiliating loss followed humiliating loss.  I have been humbled.  I am embarrassed over my ineptitude.

I hunted up my favorite old Scrabble dictionary. XQAIIIE must spell something, or fit somewhere.  In another game, the letters are AAEEIOU; in yet another they are BKQTRDY.  The boards are tight.  My opponents are too smart to leave open vowels or triple spaces.  My ingenuity must be fogged by pain pills...yes, that's it.

If the actual board was in front of me, I would have heaved it in the air.  They really should add a button for that.  Instead  I struggle for two- and three-letter words--ten points here, eight there.  Sigh....it's a silly game anyway.

Many of the lessons I am learning in the autumn of my years are like the Scrabble game.  You win some, you lose some.  Life doesn't always give you everything you want, sometimes it takes a trade to make it work.  Sometimes like the seven-letter word with no home, you've got the idea but can't do anything with it.  Sometimes you pull out all single points, sometimes you get big results. Other times it pays to pass.

There was a time when Scrabble was just another game.  As I go through this new stage of learning I find life lessons everywhere.  In Scrabble and in life, I will win some and lose some.  Make the best, as Grandma Laura would have said.  Don't  scoff at a single point victory; it is still better than a win because someone else forfeited.

When I opened my games last evening, I saw that two new players had come to call.  I expect no favors, and I give none.  We will all play our best.

Sometimes you win, sometimes you lose; most times you choose between the two...Thanks, Carole King, for your words of wisdom.