competing thoughts

With some games, it can be as fun to break the rules as to follow them. Pool: Years ago some friends and I went to a pool hall with only a dollar - enough for one game at a table that took quarters - but we wanted to stay longer than that. So we decided that the object should be to NOT get any of the balls in the pockets. Suddenly it was a cooperative effort - we relied on each other - and we kept the game alive for hours... (until the bartender caught on) Chess: Someone told me they couldn't find all their chess pieces one day, so they grabbed a box of Pepperidge Farm "Chessmen" cookies and played with those. If you capture a piece you get to eat it. And apparently the famous chessmaster Bobby Fischer doesn't like to play for fun these days unless you randomize the back row; this variation is called Fischer Random Chess . Tic-tac-toe: This is a game that begs to have its rules changed. You can start by not taking turns, then changing the goal, or changing th

I've played soccer for as long as I can remember, and have come to appreciate it's international nickname, The Beautiful Game. My favorite setting is a pickup game - a random group of players on a borrowed field, who come together from across the globe. Some days I'm sure it's the most diverse gathering in the city. We pass a ball around at first, and it's clear that we've loved the game for a long time - we're dancing, grinning, showing off new tricks. When the game begins, our movements take on a new urgency - we're following instincts, we're quick, focused, clever, deceptive, graceful. We're communicating, sizing each other up, testing each other. There's strategy, teamwork, synchronicity, maybe even heroics. At times it gets ugly... and fiercely competitive. We go from joy to pain to anger and back again. We start to foul each other more, we argue, we teach each other words in new languages. It's clear that something important i