During those first years, those ladies all patiently helped me to understand what I’d done amiss, patiently put up with my making mistakes, and patiently encouraged me to keep playing. Patience was the hallmark of those early attempts to learn to be even barely a satisfactory fourth to people who knew all about bridge. It might be appropriate if I called it Bridge with a capital B. Their respect for the game probably saved my being ostracized entirely. Those ladies were followed by many more, and finally I went to a class that for the first time introduced me the math of the game. That was a year or more ago and led to my introduction to Duplicate Bridge.
Now I try to spur a failing memory to feats I couldn’t manage in my early twenties, to add accurately without using the fingers holding the cards, to remember etiquette like thanking my partner for her hand when she is dummy, stumble mentally through more possible choices than I can begin to recall in order to bid, try not to take five minutes to make a play ... I could go on, but anyone who plays bridge at all will know what I mean, and any who don’t will have the idea by now.
Still, you might be amused by some problems associated with age of the players. For instance, one foursome with which I play almost every week has three members whose arthritic hands can no longer shuffle. Mine get a good workout on those days. I have to take care shuffling at the end of every hand. Of course, trying to keep track of whose deal is next adds yet another intellectual challenge.
Fortunately for me, nearly everyone I play with is much better than I will ever be, and even more fortunately, most of them play for entertainment and distraction, and for an excuse to spend time with friends. It’s a great deal of fun no matter who wins, or how the cards fall. The game is the setting for conversation as well as concentration. Many groups play for a little bit of money, like fifty cents apiece to be split between first and second scorer at the end of the afternoon. Most are games of “party” bridge. For one terminally ill friend, it’s her only “fun.”
Bridge is truly recreation because no two hands are the same, no two partners (who aren’t regulars) react identically, there’s so much to know and so much to remember — not about the game itself so much as about every card that has fallen in the current hand as well as the likely location of the rest. The challenge is never-ending.
If I don’t play once a week, I miss it. If it happens that I play three times, I don’t even mind the apparent waste of time. I learn something every time I sit down at a card table. The trouble is, I can’t retain it all, so there’s always a sense of renewal and salubrious reminders of proper humility. I’ve seen Life Masters make mistakes, and that’s an encouragement.
I’ve found three things in life that can invariably hold my attention in a way that entirely removes worry or depression. The reason is that it’s impossible to do any of them without focusing solely on them and nothing else: horseback riding, bridge, and painting. Of course, for the first two, you do need non-judgmental and sympathetic accomplices. For painting, you can always throw it away if you don’t like the result and still have had the fun of doing it. Bridge is only a game, but it demands as much wit as I possess, and doesn’t even require much in the way of space or supplies. Besides, the next hand might let you bid and make a slam!
A week without a game makes me worry about losing what “little grey cells” I still posses. It may be a singular healthy addiction.
©2012 Joan L. Cannon for SeniorWomen.com
Other Lifelong Pursuits Articles:
Lifelong Pursuits: An Affair With a Creative Passion
Lifelong Pursuits: Defining a Birder
Lifelong Pursuits: The Rickrack Chronicles
Lifelong Pursuits: Musing on the Triple Crown
Pages: 1 · 2
More Articles
- Rose Madeline Mula: If You Can't Stand the Heat
- Medicare Advantage Increasingly Popular With Seniors — But Not Hospitals and Doctors
- National Institutes of Health: Common Misconceptions About Vitamins and Minerals
- Julia Sneden Redux: Age Rage; Sometimes You Just Have to Strike Back
- Medical Billing and Collections Among Older Americans
- Julia Sneden Wrote: Love Your Library
- Shhhhhh by Ferida Wolff
- Women Consistently Earn Less Than Men; Women Are Over-represented in Lower Paying Jobs and, As They Age, the Pay Gap Widens Even More
- Rose Madeline Mula Writes: I’ve Got A Secret – NOT!
- The Stanford Center on Longevity: The New Map of Life