Mahjong and Maroon Nail Polish

I’ll be the first to admit that I’m a tabletop game junkie. Any game, cards, chess, board games, I’ll go all in. So when I was Christmas shopping last year and I saw mahjong in stock at my local bookstore, I had to jump on it. There was only one problem with my endeavors. I had never once, prior to getting the game, actually played mahjong. Not once. Sure I’ve played the matching puzzle online, but never the real game. I’m pleased to say that at this point in time, I do know how to play the game, and happily made it a part of my family game night. We all gather around our favorite wooden table, shuffle the tiles, with various pieces of what I legitimately call artfully crafted characters and symbols on them. Since there are numerous rules to setting up and starting the game, I’ll spare you all that and get to the point that I want to emphasize here. Every time you pick up a tile, you have to put one back, until you get mahjong. You have to pay attention to the tiles you already have, including the one you pick up, and thus decide which one to let go. I always find this part of the game the most difficult. I either decide to let go of the wrong one, or keep one I shouldn’t. Nonetheless, as the sun set, I ran my freshly painted nails (maroon of course), over my new tile, the one to win mahjong. I flipped over all my tiles and happily squeaked it. I suppose there really is an art to letting go, and an art to keeping.