Foreword
This collection of short stories is not a serious look at the male psyche
since I am convinced that there is not much that males do that is serious. We
tend to look at things in terms of games or adventures. We use each other to
test our gaming abilities. Our playing fields can be as small as a pool table or
as large as a city or a whole country. Whether we are office workers, policemen,
soldiers or poets, we all seem to like our games. There are rules to our games,
oftentimes written in little books, but sometimes just part of the secret male
code. We can be winners, losers or even collateral damage in our games, yet most
often in these stories, someone comes away with a wining smile.
While these games may often seem totally illogical and unreasonable to
the female of the species, to us they are .
. . well, life and fun. There can be no apology to our female mates, friends or
siblings – it is just the way we are. Yet with a tip of my fedora, the
collection begins by acknowledging that women, too, play games!
The essays at the end of this collection are some of my ramblings, again
on the theme of game-playing. I would like to be more serious about some things
political, but how can anyone be entirely serious, for example, about the
USA
jousting with
Cuba
? Canadian politics are even more laughable, though they become serious when
budget cuts threaten my beloved Snowbirds! Yet amid all the rushing to and fro,
there are some small, safe places in my imagination to escape from the Games Men Play.
