Mahjong…the Game We Never Knew We Needed!
It’s been a minute since my last Life380º installment! The summer months have been filled with new learnings, travel, and family commitments. The pull of the fabulous weather, and much to do, kept me from the keyboard.
The experience of writing and sharing personal thoughts and challenges has been a real joy, though admittedly, writing for Life380º, and the goals I’d set for myself to publish at regular intervals, started to feel quite challenging as summer emerged.
So, I decided to let Life380º take a back seat for a while. This summer felt like a time to make space, take advantage of opportunities, grab the gorgeous weather (a finite commodity in Northeast Ohio), learn new stuff, and be there for my family…my utmost priority!
I’ve had the chance to try some new things over summer…lots of learning going on in this old brain!
One of my favorite new discoveries…Mahjong.
I’m not sure exactly when Mahjong became such a phenomenon, but I’m hooked! I’ve read about the rise of Mahjong…some articles reference its popularity after the movie “Crazy Rich Asians,” others point to growth during Covid. For years, I’d seen ladies playing at the café of our neighborhood grocery store, intrigued about the game, but it only recently came into my realm when a Mahjong enthusiast at our club set up lessons with a fellow devotee who is a wonderful teacher and is building quite a Mahjong community in our area. We now have weekly open play, and it’s really gaining in popularity.
The game can feel a bit overwhelming at first. I definitely recommend learning with an instructor and other newer players, if at all possible. There’s a lot going on, and learning at a table with seasoned players can be a bit intimidating.
Mahjong is complex and mentally challenging, but very learnable. It requires thinking on your feet, adapting to what’s happening around you, and patience. It also requires a commitment of time. Time to learn, time to play, time to allow yourself a learning curve, and the confidence to keep going, knowing things will start to click.
And then, little by little, they do.
What I didn’t expect was how much I would enjoy everything that comes along with the game.
Mahjong has brought new friendships at our club and within the broader community. I’ve been able to organize learn-to-play sessions with a group of my dearest and most longtime friends. We’ve never had trouble finding reasons to get together, and now we have yet another one. We’re setting up periodic drop-in play sessions…we’ll be challenging our brains, socializing, laughing, competing, all while enjoying a cocktail…what could be better!
While we’re all spending so much of our lives on devices and screens, it’s no surprise that activities like Mahjong and Pickleball have taken us by storm. Both remind us that people crave being together face to face. We want to learn and laugh, compete and support each other.
Mahjong isn’t the only thing I’ve found myself learning lately. I’ve dabbled in gardening, tried my hand at fly fishing, and thanks to my football-loving family, I’m even attempting Fantasy Football. Some of these new pursuits will stick, others may not. But I’ve really enjoyed staying curious about the next new thing.
And, as I’ve mentioned before, Gepetto, my nickname for ChatGPT, has become a pretty regular companion in all this learning.
There’s certainly plenty of debate about AI and the role it will play in our lives, and I don’t pretend to have the answers to that. But for me, it has become an incredibly useful tool for learning. I’ve asked Gepetto everything from how and when to prune a tree, to whether I should drop a tight end from my Fantasy Football team, to the finer points of Mahjong strategy. ChatGPT has pretty much become my new Google search. When I’m curious about something, I ask, and usually get a thorough, well-rounded answer that sends me off learning even more. I’m always checking to make sure the information makes sense, of course…we know AI is far from perfect!
All these new experiences have reminded me how wonderful it is to learn something from scratch. It feels youthful and full of promise. There’s a little magic in starting out not sure of what you’re doing, being uncomfortable, asking questions others may already know the answers to, and then realizing, little by little, you’re getting it.
Trying something new can bring new people into your life, help you discover an interest you never expected to have, or simply offer the satisfaction of understanding something that made little sense before. Maybe that’s what I’ve enjoyed most…trying things, learning as I go, and connecting with people along the way.
Mahjong? I think it really may be the game we never knew we needed.
