In my opinion, Hearts is a particularly vicious and brutal game that requires luck and a whole lot of strategy. In our family, there always seemed to be one sacrificial lamb. One brave soul, usually a woman, that pretty much signed up to be tortured throughout the entire course of the game as those who thrive on this ruthlessness form of sport (a.k.a. the men) conspire and guffaw at our expense. So why on earth am I writing about such a thing in a blog for well-being? The truth of the matter is that we are all perfectly imperfect and it is in these moments that we discover who we truly are and how to love. In all experiences it allows us the opportunity to learn more about who we really are. Although what follows does not show us all at our best but it is real and in seeing that, I hope it resonates with all of you as well. Hopefully it will bring a smile to your face as you recall a similar experience of your own.
When my brother-in-law went away to school, he learned the game of Hearts and begged us to introduce it to the family. My husband generally does not like learning anything new but the strategy required to play drew him in and he was hooked. So now we had three men chomping at the bit to play (my brother-in-law, husband, and father-in-law) and they were desperately in need of a fourth person. Enter the poor, self-sacrificing female of the family who would eventually acquiesce to appease the masses. Initially my mother-in-law, sister-in-law, and myself took turns but as time wore on, my sister-in-law was the fan favorite due to her volatile and colorful eruptions when they were “bending her over”.
If you aren’t familiar with the game, the object is to receive the fewest points and give your opponents as many as humanly possible. The game is played with a standard card deck which would seem harmless enough. Nothing malevolent or threatening about that but don’t be too quick to judge. All the hearts are point cards and each card counts as one point for a total of 13 points if you would receive all the hearts in the deck. Still not too exciting, what is one point or even 13? But wait for it…. there is one more card left, the coup de gras, the mother of all evil, leaving players quaking in their boots, the dreaded Queen of Spades. This mother of a card instantaneously gives you 13 points, almost certainly a death blow in any one hand and sure to elicit gleeful snickering at the receivers expense.
So once we decided who the fourth victim would be, we always sat in the same seats ensuring that my father-in-law would be the one dealing “the keeper hand”. This round was the fourth in the cycle and required sheer guts and a whole lot of luck. In the first three rounds, you get to use some strategy by giving three of your cards away to another person: first to your left, then your right and then whomever is sitting across from you. Of course your strategy could back fire but at least there would be a fighting chance. During the keeper hand, you must make the most of what you got and pray a lot!
Definitely another time of intense stress would be if a player had a hand so bad for getting points that they opted to try and get all of them. If successful, they would get zero points for that round and the rest of the players would all get 26 points. A difficult feat to be sure but not impossible and oh so heady if achieved with many curses from the others and tremendous bragging rights. That said, there was great peril in attempting this strategy because if the course of action was improperly executed, the player may end up “eating” all the points but one or two. Adding insult to injury would be the jeering and ridicule from one’s family who would say that you got “Zoed”, named not so affectionately after my brother-in-law’s whiney ex-girlfriend.
Many an argument erupted during the course of the game when my husband and I would play as one of us would take offense, usually me, to the rough treatment at each other’s hands. I have come a long way to not taking things personally but it would be a significant test for me to play and not do well without falling into old patterns. There was one particularly funny moment though when we played together. We had got down to the last spade trick in the hand and the Queen was still not played. Taunts and snickering ensued as each of us suspected the other person would have to play the Queen and win the trick since it was the highest card still out. Thing is, we all were ribbing each other so how could that be? My husband played a heart and we all looked at each other dumbfounded. Who had the Queen?!? Normally, it is poor etiquette and against the rules in cards to ask another player about their hand, but in this instance it was vital. It would change the balance of the whole game. Each of us denied having the dreaded card that was sure to buy whomever held it an extra 13 points so we started looking around the table and on the floor. There by my husband’s left foot lay a card face down on the carpet. When he counted his cards he was one short and then he picked the card from the floor, voila! The Queen of Spades! I don’t think we have ever laughed harder while playing cards than that moment of truth especially because it couldn’t have happened to a “nicer” fellow.
As our kids grew older and more involved with activities outside the home, we played cards less and less as a family except on special occasions. Usually the women would then persuade the men to play a team oriented card game called Haas (similar to pinochle but way easier) that we all enjoyed. Over time we played Hearts less and less. In recent years, I have thought about playing Hearts but since my brother-in-law who first introduced us to the game so long ago is no longer here with us, my heart isn’t in it. I choose instead to keep those moments, like when the men would laugh so hard that they cried after my sister-in-law blew up at them for plotting to give her the Queen, as cherished memories.
What moments do you cherish?
