I’ve referred to my dear friend Mariam multiple times:
- We reconnected through Facebook.
- During a neighborhood stroll together we focused on some simple joys.
- Once while sunbathing I contemplated the shortness of life.
- Mariam asked me for this list because we both love to read.
Not surprisingly, when my daughter and I get an opportunity to run up the road five hours for a visit, we do. And as is often the happy case, there were other house guests besides ourselves. Along with those other house guests (almost) always comes a language barrier.
I don’t speak Persian.
Not to be outdone by a little Farsi, and very much interested in connecting with any friends of Mariam’s, we walked down to Barnes and Noble, because my daughter and I love games. A lot. We have an entire shelving unit dedicated just to games! Pass the Pigs, anyone?
Our game of choice: UNO. After making our purchase (with a complimentary discount given at the register because my daughter was wearing a Dr. Who t-shirt), we headed back to Mariam’s for some fun. I can’t recall the last time I enjoyed a game of UNO nearly as much as I enjoyed the multiple rounds the four of us played together that night.
We laughed like school girls sipping cups of hot tea and devouring slices of Mariam’s zucchini bread and played round after round after round of UNO, never once stopping to wonder what the other person was thinking or feeling or saying because suddenly there was no Farsi. There was no English. There were simply hands of cards with bright colors and numbers and symbols and a competitive drive to win the next round!
Our game of UNO did more than provide a little entertainment for an evening; it built a bridge between two cultures, as four women shared the language of laughter.