the game

About a week ago, I was out with some friends in a social setting. The Thunder/Lakers game was on so I wasn't part of the conversation, which happened to be a conversation of gender generalities. (aka "girls always do this" or "guys are always like this") I'm as guilty as anyone about making inaccurate general statements about things, but being an outsider to the conversation made me laugh at how ridiculous we sound sometimes. At one point the conversation turned to games that we play. Not the awesome kind like uno, badminton, or capture the flag either. They were talking about relationship games. This slightly intrigued me so I began eavesdropping.

At one point, someone who was less than amused with the comments said "Can someone even define what these games are?" The dumbfounded group could barely come up with "It's just the stupid games that girls and guys play during a relationship."  So games are just the games that girls and guys play during a relationship. Gotcha.

I decided to shed some light on these "games" by asking around. What I found from personal experience as well as the intelligence of friends is: of course there is a game that must be played. As people, Americans especially, there is a huge breakdown in communication and one can't say everything they want to. (I try all the time, it doesn't work.) As a result, there is a huge game of guessing. And if you can keep the other guessing longer without pushing them away, you have the upper hand. If you have 'verbal throw up,' and tell them everything you are thinking all the time, you might freak them out and push them away. It's a fine line. If you don't cross it, you aren't playing 'games' but if you do? The other party is going to say you are a tease and just play 'games.'

Conclusion: We should just play uno more often and leave the games to the backstreet boys.