Games for the Soul

Ok, I'm gonna be posting these all out of order as I find them...

Games For the Soul
Task Force Trailblazer Newsletter #13 June 26, 2009

David McKay once said, “The most important of life‟s battles is the one we fight daily in the silent chambers of the soul.” For the past several months, Big Army and the Chaplain‟s Corps have been taking great strides to help soldiers be victorious in this very battle because it has be-come clear that soldiers who are not able to take care of the battles within themselves and their families will not be effective on the physical battlefields of war. The TFTB Religious Support Team is entirely committed to helping every soldier in TFTB win this very battle within themselves. By now, every soldier here most likely knows who we are, and that we are here for them and care for them. Our mission goes a lot farther than making sure that soldiers have the religious support they need to practice whatever faith they choose to follow. We are also here for soldiers who are struggling with the stresses of being here, being away from family and friends. A lot of that is seen through our ministry of presence and through one-on-one counseling with the Chaplain. But we also take a step further to try to offer opportunities for soldiers to decompress, such as the movie nights that were discussed in a previous newsletter. We also host “game nights” once a month, offering a space for officers, NCOs, and junior enlisted to level the playing field for a couple hours and decompress from their individual stressors and just try to enjoy the moment. We have several games here in Lahmann Hall; board games, card games, trivia games, and several others, but it seems that Monopoly and Phase 10 have become the battalion favorites. I'm not surprised at the choices, as these were also among the favorites of my friends in college when we needed a chance to decompress from all of our studying and paper writing. Although we have not had swarms of people attending these game nights like some of our movie nights, I'm sure that those who do come would admit that they enjoy themselves. It may not seem like stress relief as we are playing a simple game of Phase 10 and jovial threats are made across the table from someone who needed just one more card to finish her phase when someone else “phased out” and ended the round, leaving her a phase behind and 70 points ahead. Or when we just can't seem to get through the first phase while everyone else is racing towards the 10th phase. And then there's the frustration of the monopoly game where we build up Boardwalk and Park Place only to have our opponents land on “Luxury Tax” every time they come to that side of the board. But in the end, no matter who wins, or how many times our turns were strategically skipped just because we were winning, we are all smiling and unconcerned with having lost our fortunes just because we landed on Boardwalk one too many times. For a moment, we are not worrying about whatever stresses we have going on at work. And then, when it's all said and done, and we wake up to the daily rituals of our jobs, we have a little bit more of a fighting chance in that battle within the silent chambers of our soul.