Mah Jongg All Ways All Day

My dear friend Ann from Kinston has been going through cancer treatment at Duke. Today we got together to go to lunch with Reba and Debbie from Kinston. It was the first time Debbie had met Reba, who is the ground zero student who got me going all over the state. If it weren’t for Reba I never would have met Ann at Atlantic Beach and then I would not have gotten to Kinston to meet Debbie and the thread goes on and on.

Thankfully Ann is doing great with her treatment and of course looks fabulous. But more importantly is going to be around to keep playing for years and years.

After lunch out together Debbie had to go, but Ann and Reba were free to come back to my house, where of course we had to play a few hands. Mah Jongg is life restorative after all and what better way to pass the time between daily treatments.

Tonight I was honored to be on a zoom panel put on by Donna and Dara of Modern Mah Jongg. There were experts from around the country who shared their stories about their love of the game. The themes are the same; getting together to play Mah Jongg is healing, fun, escapism. As I always say at Mah Jongg class when people say how much fun they have in class, “It should be fun, it’s a game.”

What I let them discover for themselves is that it is much more than a game. It is a life line, a life saver, a community, a place to let lose and laugh, a place for support, an exercise for your brain, a place for advice, a place you belong.