Since I’ve had a week of house arrest due to circumstances within my control but apparently without any interest in controlling them, I find my mind wandering.  My mind wanders at the drop of a hat anyway and unless I reel it in, it takes me down paths of intrigue and mystery that are too often dangerous.

The past four years have been tumultuous and full of drastic changes that precipitated moving to and fro over great distances with such frequency I occasionally met myself coming while I was going.  Or at least it felt that way to me.  Here today, gone tomorrow.  Now I see me.  Now I don’t.  The rolling stone gathered no moss.  And so forth.

Throughout these “transitional life experiences” one constant remained for me: my iPad and Words with Friends.  If there is any person in cyberspace who has never heard of this innocuous sounding game, please Google it immediately and get up to speed.  The rest of us will move on.

My discovery of the game came from my partner Teresa who introduced me to WWF four years ago when I was under house arrest for a month for an ailment unrelated to the current one.  She gave me an iPad and told me that several of her tennis friends loved to play a little word game that was like Scrabble and that I should learn to play.   Sounds like something fun for you to do while you’re home, she told me.  I never argue with her about fun.

The three tennis friends and I are still playing WWF four years later.  What I’ve found out since then is life goes on for all of us with changes everywhere, but we play on.  We may travel to exotic places, but we carry WWF with us.  We may have our first grandchildren who live a long way from us and we stay with them to help our children care for the new baby, but WWF gives us a connection to home.  Football seasons come and go and we live and breathe for our teams in Auburn, Clemson and Columbia – but we play WWF after the games no matter who wins or loses.  WWF transcends other loyalties.

Cyberspace allows me to play WWF with opponents bouncing off satellites in other towns and states.  My friend in Charleston battles the everyday hardships of taking care of a mother who needs constant attention and affection, but she finds time to play WWF and beats me like a drum on a regular basis.  I have three other friends in Texas who play with me.  Their lives are busy and complicated, but they make time to make words every day.

Recently I’ve added two new opponents who are locals – well, at least they’re local now.  They moved to Cayce two years ago from New York and love living in the South.  They also love WWF and so we meet on that battleground a minimum of once each day to determine who can outwit the other.

In sickness and in health, for better or worse scores, I play on.  I prefer to win, but I’ve learned to lose.  Hm.  That’s kind of like life in general.

Uh, oh.  Beep, Beep. Danger. Danger.  Time to reel it in.