Twister and the Game of Life

My wife and I were thinking about our childhoods. We had siblings. We would play board games and ride bikes.

However, during the hot summer months, it is difficult to play outside and ride bikes. When we were kids, the default activities when it was hot outside was too played boardgames or read books.

For our son and his generation, they are so wired. Video games, Xbox, iPads, iPods. That is his world.

We are starting to try to break the spell of technology for our son. Though television is technology, we are forcing him to watch a Disney classic movie on Sunday nights. We are trying to play board games rather than watching TV.

We play Risk, Chess, Go Fish, Old Maid, Clue, Monopoly, the Game of Life, and the like.

Because of my strokes, simple games are challenging for me.

Reading game instructions is difficult when you cannot read very well. If I have to concentrate I usually get a headache. Sometimes I get confused if it is a complex game. Certainly it is getting so much better.

However, we played "Twister" the other night. Twister is a Hasbro game that started in the mid 60's. Twister seems to be a simple game.

But it is not when you have a stroke.

It seems simple enough. Colored dots and simple body parts movements. For example, "blue and left hand."

For me, I need to remember a color, remember "left or right," and "hand or foot!"

Three seemingly simple moves that people take for granted. However when 20% of your brain is gone, the simple game of Twister taxes my brain. And aphasia is a problem!

Trying to play Twister is very frustrating for me. It's just a simple kids game that I cannot play very well! My wife and our son are very patient when I play games with them.

"The Game of Life?" It's MY life!

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