Tonight was the second pinochle night of the year for our congregation’s rather eclectic group, of which I am the youngest member [1]. As it happens, I ended up being player #17 tonight (out of 18, apparently), and when it comes to pinochle that is far from ideal, as pinochle is a game that tends to be played with four people, two on each team. The fact that there were some additional people tonight that did not come last night definitely made matters a bit difficult, as it required people to sit out some games and try to amuse themselves while others played. Since one person wanted to leave a bit early (not that anyone left very early), and they were married, the last of the rounds was played with the sixteen remaining people. By that time, though, everyone was pretty tired and those whose hands had been going well were looking to angle themselves to be the “tiger,” having the best place score. I was not one of those people.

It was very intriguing to view these games as a single person. There were not very many singles at the games either tonight or last time, and I noticed some clear advantages to the couples, aside from the fact that each couple is automatically half of a table even if they are kept from playing on each other’s team to start. One of the key advantages is that I saw over and over again couples playing off of each other when they were kibitzing in between games. If one comes over with one’s hand during the bidding process and gets advice from a spouse on how to play or which cards to give, this is a tremendous advantage in terms of having good counsel than one can have if one only has one’s own mind to work with. Obviously, some people would have a hard time competing with my card counting and calculating skills, but I also suppose they would not like to be told that life is not fair in such ways even if they would be quick to use that defense regarding the disadvantages of being solitary.

It is striking to look at the people who play pinochle together and to notice the parallels and advantages that people have in terms of living life with others who are involved in the same sorts of activities. In our lives we have situations where what we do and what others do can help us immensely, and in much of that life marriage happens to be not only a major help in terms of equalizing our moods and helping to keep our spirits up, but also marriage can be a major tactical benefit when it comes to figuring out what to do even on a game to game level, and it does not appear as if those who are married consider that state to be an unfair advantage when they are dealing with others who have no such advantage for themselves. Perhaps it is time to wonder why this is the case, and such a consistent problem to deal with.

[1] This was the first one: https://edgeinducedcohesion.wordpress.com/2014/01/12/let-the-games-begin/