The girls and I have a game we play I partly read about in a parenting magazine and partly made up. It doesn’t have a name. Rachel likes to be a spectator; she just loves how excited the kids get about it. I take the girls to school most mornings, and the game is great way to have conversations and create a fun, yet competitive spirit with Mollie Ann and Emma.
So here is the deal. You may have played the Punch Buggy game in the car growing up. In Punch Buggy, you punch someone next to you when you see a Volkswagen Beatle and say, “Punch Buggy.”
Our game has no physical violence.
You get points for spotting certain vehicles. A VW bug is worth 2 points. You must say “Punch Buggy” and then the color of the car and whether it is in the “stop” or “go” position. For example, if Emma sees a pink VW bug, she says, “Punch buggy, pink, go!” You get one more point if it is a convertible or if it’s vintage if you call it. Any other passengers in the car can also score points if they see the car and repeat the words, but one less than the initial spotter. Finally, if we see the car in a parking lot or something, you can get another bonus point if it is within “touchable distance.”
A Mini Coopers also counts and the big score is when we see a Fiat, which we call an “Italian.” There are not many in Jackson. The Holy Grail of our game is the Fiat convertible in touchable distance. I saw one in Memphis a while back. Big score.
For a while now, when I speak in public about 200 Million Flowers or whatever, I have been using a picture of a Volvo to represent the stuff we live our lives attempting to acquire, and what a boring story we write for ourselves in the process. Lawyers are the worse. Today at the Mississippi College School of Law family law class for which I was a guest lecturer, I talked about my game with the girls –especially the part about how you get more points when you are within touchable distance.
I am of the opinion that a beautiful life story is within touchable distance for us all. Maybe it’s the friend who needs a shoulder to cry on while in the throws of divorce. Maybe it’s an orphan who needs a home or a foster care kid who yearns for a mentor.
Life is always within touchable distance, and when we reach out, we score big.
