Defending Kamchatka

We just finished a jigsaw puzzle. It was a 500 piece montage of Santa Claus images picked up for fifty cents at a rummage sale. The kids and I worked on it for the better part of a week. It would have been faster if I had just done it myself, but that wasn't the point.

The last jigsaw puzzle I worked on was probably twenty years ago. STBEW didn't like jigsaw puzzles, so I didn't do them. I also didn't play Scrabble, Trivial Pursuit, or Boggle during the past two decades, because STBEW didn't like them either. She liked playing backgammon. The woman could roll doubles in her sleep.

But this post isn't about her.

While we were working on the puzzle, my 10-year-old son said he wants me to go buy Risk. He wants to play Risk. To my surprise, I said no.

It's not because I don't think he should play this game. And it's not because I can't afford to go out and buy this game.

It's because I don't want to play Risk.

I've played the game before. Probably every male between the ages of 50 and 20 can regale you with tales of all-night, sometimes all-weekend long classic battles with factions joining and fracturing, improbable victories, strokes of luck, valiant defenses, and last-gasp heroics.

I can't.

Here's my story of Risk:

I get my armies. I place my armies. I lose my armies. I watch TV or read while the rest of my friends carry on with all-night, sometimes all-weekend long classic battles with factions joining and yada yada yada.

It never mattered who I played with, or where I placed my armies.* Within twenty minutes, I was relegated to defending Kamchatka with three green blocks.**

And then I'm out.

So, I said no. If my son wants to play world domination games, he can. But I don't want to.

It's a revelation to me. It's ok to say I don't want to do something just because I don't want to.

I want to work on jigsaw puzzles.

And as I sat there, twising a piece in my hand, searching for the place it fit, I realized that working on a jigsaw puzzle was as close to the opposite of Risk as you can get with a table-related activity.

And that's what I liked about it. No competition. No time limits. No strategy. Just find the patterns--eventually they reveal themselves to you.

Let other people fight over world dominion. I'm through defending Kamchatka. I'm happy enough getting all the pieces to fit.

A big part of life is deciding which games you will play.

Pick me up, love!
Pick me up, love.
Hey, how long, how long, how long
Everyday
Everyday, ah

Pick me up, oh, from the bottom
Up to the top, love, everyday
Pay no mind to taunts or advances
I take my chances on everyday

Left to right
Up and down, love
I push up love, love everyday
Jump in the mud, oh
Get your hands dirty with
Love it up on everyday

All you need is
All you want is
All you need is love.
All you need is
What you want is
All you need is love.

Everyday
Everyday
Oh, Everyday...

Pick me up, love, from the bottom
Up onto the top, love, everyday
Pay no mind to taunts or advances
I'm gonna take my chances on everyday

Left to right
Up and up and inside out right
Good love fight for everyday
Jump in the mud, mud
Get your hands filthy, love
Give it up, love
Everyday

All you need is
All you want is
All you need is love.
All you need is
What you want is
All you need is love.
Oh...

What you’ve got
Lay it down on me
What you’ve got
Lay it down on me

All you need is
All you want is
All you need is love.
All you need is
What you want is
All you need is love.

Everyday
Everyday
Oh, Everyday...

Pick me up love
Lift me up love
Pick me up love
Everday...

Up from the bottom, everyday
Up to the top love, everyday
Pick me up love
Lift me up love
Pick me up love
Everyday

Yeharr

*And yes, I've tried the Australia gambit.

**It doesn't matter what color I started with, by this point in the game, it's always down to three green blocks.