Every day these days, I play words with friends, also scramble, on the ipad with a variety of friends and family. The games are not a total waste of time since according to the people who study these things, allegedly I am strengthening my neural networks and keeping my brain plastic, or so they say.
Likewise I'm keeping my ego in check since my sibs in particular but also a couple of very sharp minded friends, not to mention my nephew Alex, regularly whip my ass. Winning seems very important to some. I asked my sister why it's important to win, what's the point - since it is JUST A GAME. She said it's like finding a $5 bill in your pocket. I really get that. Very cool.
I find four-letter words boring. I wonder why. In fact, I prefer three letter words which perhaps at least partially explains why I mostly lose the games. A friend tried to convince me that it's the one syllable word I find boring, but that's not true. Five letter, one syllable words are excellent. Six letter, one syllable words are fabulous, like GROUND for instance. I love that word.
Sometimes when I'm supposed to be meditating, in my mind's eye I see game boards. Letters appear and disappear, forming words and their variations. When I realize what's happening, I remind myself to return to my breath. But within seconds, I'll inevitably "see" many forms of an excellent six letter, one syllable word, i.e.
breath
breaths
breathe
breathes
breather
breathers
breathing
In Buddhism there are five hindrances to concentration: sensual craving, anger or ill will, boredom, restlessness, and doubt. I wonder under which heading the word distraction would fall?
As you can imagine, as I fall sleep I see five letter words of one syllable, in many forms
dream
dreams
dreamer
dreamers
dreaming
I guess it could be worse, hey? ("Worse" is an excellent five letter, one syllable word.) I love the word "hey." I like it better than "hay." Don't ask me why!
Happy, happier, happiest Monday, y'all. I hope for those of you who meditate that you had a calmer practice this morning than I did. Oh yeah. Shalom.
Mirror, mirrors, mirroring, mirrored at the flea market, markets, marketer, marketing.
9 comments:
hey!
fun post.... bet i owe you a word
i too find 3 letter words more fun to play than 4, especially if by putting down a 3 letter word one makes up multiple words!
i definitely don't mind losing, i do it all the time, but i do like to try and go see if i can hit bonus squares and max my word (sounds contradictory by its really not just another dimension with the game)
lovely red today!!
I don't mind losing either, but then I usually do. sure it's fun to win but when losing takes the fun out of it for you then you've got a serious problem I think. I play Words to keep my brain tuned. I used to do the crossword puzzle for the same reason but then we quit taking the paper. One of my favorite words is 'ocean'. I like the way it sounds and I like to write it in cursive. It just rolls along reminding me of the waves at the beach.
Ocean is a delicious words. I love horse, too, the word I mean.
And I love playing wwf with you, great priestess of snake powers!
You sound like Meghan. I can imagine her finding words boring for some reason or another. She prefers the $10 bill to any other note, which I think is just as funny.
I always play the game to win but absolutely don't care if I don't.
How weird, Jeanette. I too love the $10 bill best. Ha!!
Maybe word distraction is restlessness? Or maybe there should be a 6th category.
I love words too. One more reason to get an iPad someday.
Or an iPhone, Kerry.
Even though I'm a "word" guy, I never got very into word games. In fact, I'm not much for games in general, I think because like you I'm mystified by the hunger to win. I just don't feel it. Perhaps I should learn to merely enjoy the process of playing more!
I think those five hindrances all overlap -- distraction could be boredom or restlessness or anger or the others too. Or a combination. The lines are very arbitrary! Everything is one thing!
Everything IS one thing!
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