Wednesday, February 17, 2016 6:50 p.m.

Brain cancer is...

...an invitation to create fun yet helpful emo family party games!

One experience that we each seem to share is getting lost in uncharted emotional territory.  I say "uncharted" because we seem to be finding a whole range of emotions formerly unlabeled on the emo-map.  For instance, an emo-land formerly experienced simply as "bad" has revealed a myriad of finely nuanced crags and valleys.  One example would be "fragile/tired bad."

We find that once individuals are lost in their new emo-territories, they often become disconnected from other family members, and everyone feels a little bit worse.  So we invented a game!  Yippee!

Two Rules  

Rule One:  Every day (or portion thereof in the face of major shifts) one must check one's emotional experience, perhaps asking oneself questions such as:  "Where are you?" "How is today?" No deep introspection or lengthy descriptions necessary.  Just a label:  "Fragile/tired bad,"  for instance.   Or "Super stoked by Sees peanut brittle as a vegetable substitute!"  (Brilliant, BTW, BLBC)

Rule Two:  If someone asks you where/how you are, you have two choices.  You may decline to state.  No penalties.  Or you may tell the truth:  "Fragile/tired bad."  "Super stoked."

Of course if you're the one doing the asking, you need to decide what to do with a response.  No rules here, but what's working best for us is just quiet listening and a nod.

This game clearly has much potential for the cheater (just lie!), but we haven't had that problem yet.  Maybe because everyone wins when they play.

We were so impressed with our game that our marketing plans were completely derailed when Darrell received the radiologist's version of this game with his intake packet.  This version is called, "What's your emotional distress temperature?"

Apparently we were on to something with our game.  We like our version better.  We feel judged by that scale.  Zero distress? What brain cancer patient or loved one has "zero distress"?  Chuck Norris is the only possibility.  You mess up the scale for the rest of us, Chuck!


You choose your version, though.  Or make up a new game.  Play along.  And try the peanut brittle solution!