Mahjong meditations...

Chinese New Year – gambling time.. Thus far, I have made about 150 bucks on mahjong.. a happy bonus! =)
I find that a way a person plays mahjong says a lot about his or her character.

I was involved in a high stakes game the other day with some older folk. My uncle’s mood got progressively darker as he kept losing. His remarks were cutting, and because I was the youngest at the table, he chose to vent his frustration on me. This is a man who,at rest, is full of good humour and the life of the party.

I learnt two things –
1) people who gamble for the money and not the pleasure are digging a deep deep hole for themselves. This is the reason why my parts of my extended family have been in ‘cold wars’ for protracted periods.
2) People who can’t laugh at themselves and their own mistakes shouldn’t gamble.

This second point was further emphasized when I played with some old friends the other day. It was painful to watch one of my friends play. She’s always been rather anal (I mean that with affection), but this translated into her being unable to let go of useless cards or make split-second decisions. When the stakes got higher, she would tremble or start cursing, thus giving herself away. But more than that was the .. joylessness of the process. Every game started with ‘I hate my cards’ , or ‘Sucks’ or…
.. but I thought the whole point of mahjong was to build build build… After a while I could sense she didn’t even want to play anymore..

But if we can’t even enjoy our games, how can we enjoy our lives?

Mathew 6:24 - No man can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and mammon.

1 Corinthians 10:23 - All things are lawful, but not all things are profitable. All things are lawful, but not all things edify.