Never before had I felt so much a part of the commun community that is humanity. Okay, so perhaps that’s something over an overstatement. But last night, while waiting in line for our turn on Mr. Six’s Pandemonium, one of the new roller coasters at Six Flags, New England, something special happened.
Directly in front of us in line was a group of family and friends, the youngest member of which was a small girl. She noticed a pair of older girls one length of the space-filling curve shaped line ahead of us playing one of those hand-clapping playground games. Something like Miss Mary Mack or Miss Suzy, but not quite because they weren’t singing. This inspired the girl, who played with one of the women in her group. Eventually she grew tired of clapping, or maybe the woman did, and the girl moved onto an improvised bout of limbo.
Meanwhile, Mary and I were getting a little bored ourselves. And Michelle was downright fiesty. So, it was time to introduce the Energy Game.
A more dynamic, generalized version of Rock, Paper, Scissors, the Enregy Game is a two-person, zero-sum game. Mick Bordano taught me. His friend from home taught him. Before that I cannot trace its origins. For those of you who know Bond, this is similar. And for those of you who have heard Mick and my playing at 2 am in the dining hall, here’s your chance to learn and participate.
[Rules to follow in the next post.]
The Energy Game has always been something of a spectators’ sport. This time was no exception. Even though she had never played before, Mary is good. Really good. Our games lasted about a dozen moves sometimes. And twelve moves in the Energy Game is as close to eternity as it gets.
By this stage in our game-playing development, the group directly in front of us, the one with the clapping-limboing girl, had really got into it. One. Two. Three. Double punch! That’s right. They cheered!
A group of two boys and a girl, who looked to be about sixteen or so, started in. I taught one of the boys how to play, but he was a bit shakey on the rules. They cheered from time to time nonetheless.
Especially popular, at least in my mind, was the Super Destructo.
It is my hope that someday I learn the Energy Game from someone else as a result of last night. Like pay it forward, but without that horrible Hailey Joel Osmand boy.