Does Size Matter?

Greetings and salutations from Bubbe, musing about which matters more: length or strength of passion (in regard to experience with mah jongg, of course!).

Long-time exposure to mahj could be merely an accident of birth. Some people I’ve met have known about mah jongg since infancy. Those who never took up the game tell me they remember hearing words like “bam” and “crak” coming from the living room, or that they were sometimes allowed to make little “brick houses” out of the tiles. Of course, there are many others who watched their mothers and grandmothers play, and followed right along. It was always part of their lives, first on the periphery but now as a weekly (or even daily) activity.  

Other people may think they know mahj. They are the ones who, when they hear the words “mah jongg,” reflexively think of those crazy solitaire games. At least they have a vague idea of what the tiles look like, but really, what they’re talking about is identical to any number of memory/matching games. They have no idea what we’re doing, at our little tables of four.

On the other end of the scale are those people who know literally nothing about the game. Sometimes when I say something about mah jongg, they stare at me blankly. 

“Mar jong? Is that self-defense?”

“You say it’s a game? Is it like Bunko?”’

Or, of course, my very favorite: “Who’s she?”

I try to explain that it’s kind of like four-person Gin Rummy, or that it uses ceramic pieces that are kind of like dominoes, but I don’t know if it resonates with them at all. I’d like to think that this game can become “big,” nationally. Certainly the Chinese version is hugely popular in certain sections of the U.S., as well as Wright Patterson among military families, but there’s no reason why NMJL rules version can’t one day become as popular as Canasta and (I fervently hope) Bridge. It’s fun, it’s exciting, it’s challenging, it’s ever-changing—what’s not to love?

But of course, I’m preaching to the choir, here. The majority of you love the game as much as I do, or you wouldn’t be reading this blog….there are the occasional few who just read it because they love their Bubbe (who can blame them?), but perhaps even you will take up the tiles.

No, the reason I’m thinking about length vs. strength is because I’m a recent convert to the game.  I only began playing in 2003, which is a very short time compared to the lifers I described, above. To them, I’ll always be a newcomer, but I’d like to think that my passion for the game makes up for my (relative) inexperience.

To those of you who have taken the game up even more recently than I, take heart! I believe you can fall just as head-over-heels. The basic strategies stay the same, so as long as you take good lessons (perhaps you’d like to read Searching for Bubbe Fischer? You can get it here: http://a.co/3qflKc7) and take your training seriously, I think you can become as good a player as any veteran. You absolutely can be as devoted as any of them. And the card changes every single year: comeApril, you can get up-to-speed and be ready to take on someone who’s been playing since the Eisenhower era!

My conclusion: it’s not length, but strength of devotion, that makes for a happy relationship with mahj!

Bubbe Fischer