Those who know me know I love a good game of Scrabble. I learned from the best (my mother the newspaper editor, the most vicious player alive!) and prefer to play with people who are better than I am. It's natural. You play with better players and you become a better player. You absorb their moves. Same with music, baseball. You play with weaker players your ego only gets satisfied by dominating the board. If your ego gets to freaked out by losing, you give up and never learn.
Living in Los Angeles I played an average of 20 games a week with a crew. For a week we had a cat at the board who was a terrible player. Well, English was his second language so he gets a pass, but anyway, it got to a point where his frustration overcame him at times. He would huff and puff at those 3 point words he lay down. At one point I asked him "man, what makes you think god's gonna give you a 30 point word if you can't appreciate that 3 point word?"
The whole room got quiet. Uncomfortably quiet. Then laughter, lots of it. The truth was really funny.
At the end of the week he beat us. Badly. We were the ones who were upset. We were all better players than him. And he was cool as a cucumber about it.
Yup. It's the truth. Are you stuck? Hate your job? Hate the crap Wednesday night gig at Arlenes Grocery in front of the soundguy and 9 drunk dis-interested patrons? What can you appreciate in that moment? Find that 3 point word and say "aw hellyeah!" and your chances of winning are far greater.
JB
Living in Los Angeles I played an average of 20 games a week with a crew. For a week we had a cat at the board who was a terrible player. Well, English was his second language so he gets a pass, but anyway, it got to a point where his frustration overcame him at times. He would huff and puff at those 3 point words he lay down. At one point I asked him "man, what makes you think god's gonna give you a 30 point word if you can't appreciate that 3 point word?"
The whole room got quiet. Uncomfortably quiet. Then laughter, lots of it. The truth was really funny.
At the end of the week he beat us. Badly. We were the ones who were upset. We were all better players than him. And he was cool as a cucumber about it.
Yup. It's the truth. Are you stuck? Hate your job? Hate the crap Wednesday night gig at Arlenes Grocery in front of the soundguy and 9 drunk dis-interested patrons? What can you appreciate in that moment? Find that 3 point word and say "aw hellyeah!" and your chances of winning are far greater.
JB
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