In the spirit of the holiday season, last night we had a games-playing evening, followed by a songfest at our house.
Do people do this sort of thing anymore? Is it a dying amusement? Am I hopelessly old-fashioned?
You’ll have to tell me.
My relationship with games goes back to childhood, but also incorporates my yoga history.
I guess I was always a renegade yoga teacher. When I used to lead Sydney Yoga Centre country retreats, instead of doing spiritual practices of an evening or watching inspiring guru videos or dvd’s, we would play board or parlour games.
The board games might include Pictionary, Taboo or Balderdash. The category of parlour games could comprise The Famous Names Game or Charades.  Oh, and sometimes, for  a change, we would put on spontaneous entertainment involving skits, songs or (sometimes funny) joke-telling.
Those people, who might have had a traumatic history of game playing in their families and still carried the scars of battles lost, would opt out of these evenings and go to bed early or find a quiet place (difficult because of  hooting laughter in the background) to read.
But the competitive stalwarts, people of my ilk, could play for hours, until mentally and emotionally spent.
Then, we would all look forward to, needing and appreciating all the more, a peaceful pranayama practice early the next morning.