games

No matter how many times we seem to get fucked over when it comes to love, sex, romance, etc, we consistently throw ourselves back into the game. “The game.” I am still trying to come to terms with what exactly that is. My early twenty-something friend recently asked her older, wiser friend if people play games. Her friend replied with a sympathetic sigh, “Oh, honey. Of course.” There are rules, apparently. Everybody plays games. Yet, it seems like no one really knows the rules, who the players are, and what the ultimate goal is. Is it casual sex (whatever that might be), love (whatever that might be), a meaningful relationship (seriously, whatever that might be), or a weird hybrid of all of it? Regardless, it seems like everybody is playing games, but with different rules. Growing up, I liked games. They usually involved sports, or hopscotch, or board games (not monopoly, that shit gets too real). Now, games involve mindfucks, pretending, waiting around a couple of hours or even days before sending reply texts, thinking about how to strategically place punctuation and emoticons, playing it cool, and being chill. Basically, doing everything in your power to not appear crazy. I am not entirely opposed to playing games per se, mainly because it could just be another way for us to communicate with each other with less conflict. However, what I am not okay with is how everyone has different understandings of how to play, which thus, creates major barriers in how we interact and prevents people from doing what I think humans were intended to do, which is form partnerships and build relationships. Or at least, have regular sex, because human bodies, biologically speaking, are built to fit together.