Jenga

Three loud cheers! Granny Hat is back to her neglected “feng shui” activities!  This week she has been sorting books, vinyl LP records and board games.  So many childhood games are keepers. They were a source of fun, laughter and family togetherness; OK, there were often angry tears too.  “Children” of all ages can learn valuable lessons while playing games.

Granny’s family often enjoyed National Geographic’s Global Pursuit, a game that made learning world geography, natural resources and map skills fun.

There was Chess, Checkers, Chinese Checkers or Battleship for lessons in strategy and if you wanted to add some brutal world domination to that, Risk was always a favorite (provided you had 24-48 hours to spare).

Monopoly teaches about commerce, property ownership and a little about taxes.  Granny says it fails in the work ethic department though, each player is simply handed $$ and then reimbursed $200 for every trip around the sun!  Sounds like entitlement to Granny but at least the principles of investment are strong with this game.

Pit promises some noisy stock market style trading complete with a bull and a bear. Tempers would sometimes run high when this game was played in Granny’s childhood days. Perhaps the most valuable lesson learned while playing was that you had to be really tricky, play it cool and wear your poker face to pass off that dratted bull card to your little brother or sister.

Candyland, Chutes & Ladders and Aggravation teach the players patience.  Scrabble, Boggle and Balderdash polish up spelling and word skills. Mastermind and Clue increase deduction skills. Memory stimulates the brain; Granny Hat needs to play it more often. Her five year old grandchildren are able to beat her fair and square.

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Granny came across games that utilize EQ like Apples to Apples or Taboo. Others, like Dominoes and Mousetrap, teach elementary physics and powerful life lessons about how one thing can lead to another.

Then deep in the game closet, Granny Hat found Jenga.  She had forgotten all about this game.  She remembers the kids building the tower, measuring to see how tall it grew and then suddenly the crash and some disappointed cries.  A light bulb went off in her head!  Jenga makes a powerful 2020 statement!  Granny just sat there for a few minutes connecting the dots…..

Jenga is a Swahili word “Kujenga” meaning “to build”.  The jenga blocks are stacked in platforms of three going one way and then three the opposite direction.  The object of the game is for each player to remove a single block and place it on top of the tower.  As each player removes and replaces, the tower grows taller and taller but the foundation is left with holes here and there. 

Then it grows a bit taller and more holes appear. Soon, it is shot full of holes like Swiss cheese and the building begins to slightly sway. How high can the tower get before it completely crumbles?

Jenga is a game of risk but there is strategy involved also.  Blocks can be removed carefully and in an order that keeps plenty of bearing blocks left for stability. 

In order to continue building however, risk must be taken.  Each choice results in greater height but also greater weakness.  And one choice leads to another until the players can’t remember who pulled which block out. Eventually they will run out of moves and then have to throw caution to the wind and risk pulling the fatal block. When the tower falls it will really be everyone’s fault; each player had a hand in compromising the structure.  Unfortunately the loser is the player that chooses the fatal block …. the last straw…. and the house of cards falls.

and that’s how the cookie crumbles……….

Granny Hat remembers learning about the Tower of Babel in Sunday school, what a strange story!  She could barely believe that people could be so stupid as to try to build a tower to reach the gods. It’s easy to understand now that she is older.   Nations boast about their skyscrapers, kings want to rule the world. Our technology and higher education and enlightenment make us feel safe but we live in a precarious world, hanging on a thread, living on borrowed time.  Granny humbly realizes how fragile human accomplishments can be.  

Granny Hat asks her readers, “Is it possible to build something that will go the distance?  How can someone protect what they have built, defend it against those that would pull the rug out from under it?

Granny’s advice: Build carefully, don’t compromise something precious just to get ahead. Pay attention to every choice you make. Value your foundation, it is holding you up. Otherwise, gravity always wins in the end.

“Unless the LORD builds the house, They labor in vain who build it; Unless the LORD guards the city, The watchman keeps awake in vain.”  Psalm 127 : 1