Playing UNO with Betty

UNO was the first game we learned to play in Spanish. It was easy to play and allowed for simple conversation. That particular set of cards went through a lot of "hands" and eventually we replaced with a new deck.

A couple of days ago, I played UNO with Betty and her kids. Her kids like to come to my house because I have games. Their favorite is the custom made Monopoly game that Andrew received for Christmas one year. (He got to name all the spaces, etc). There wasn´t enough time for Monopoly before dinner, so the three kids and I played a hand of UNO--Betty watched. The second hand, we talked her into playing and the third hand she won.

That might not sound like much to those who have spent countless hours playing a game with siblings, extended family or friends. Lots of people have a regular game night where they play some kind of game. Our friends, the Higers, love to play Cribbage, and even played it on airplanes, I think. But Betty had never played a game before in her life. When she was a girl, any free time she had was spent hauling water for her mother or cooking or whatever other chore her mother had for her. Playing of any kind was way outside her experience.

So many children in the world have childhoods like Betty's. The idea of "fun" isn't part of their lives. Children of war, children of poverty, children whose lives are hard work from the time they can walk on their own. Children who never get a chance to be children.

The amazing thing to me is that people grow up to be beautiful, content, loving people like Betty is. If you were talk to Betty about her childhood you would not hear a hint of bitterness in her voice. The leisure time to sit at the kitchen table and play a game was not so very important to her. Being loved and appreciated was.

I think playing games with kids is a great and important thing to do. Spending time with your kids doing most anything together is an important thing to do. But it's the loving that is expressed in doing those things that matters the most. "Though we play Monopoly and Uno and are experts at Cribbage and have not love..."