Imagine If

“Can you imagine what I could do if I could do all I can,” Sun Tzu

It was a bittersweet weekend. We received word that Toni’s big sister, Mary Ann, passed away, a victim of pancreatic cancer. She’d been given last rites four days before and had not been expected to live through the night but, though on morphine, rallied enough to talk to us on the phone, dance with her son Joey, and smile when her daughters told stories about her rich life. She was a rebel who loved family and was a huge influence on us and her large family.

It being Phil’s 53rd birthday on March 26, he, daughters Alissa and Miranda, Miranda’s friend Will and dog Raffy, and Alissa’s mother Beth came for the weekend. With everyone having been vaccinated, we didn’t need to be masked and, in fact, it was the first time we’d seen Phil in nine months. I was in charge of breakfast, and for the main meals Toni made her ham bologna specialty on Friday and ribs on Saturday, when Dave’s family joined us.

March 26 was also longtime friend Michael Bayer’s birthday, and his daughters arranged for close friends and family to honor him long distance, which they turned into a 25-minute tribute. I told Mike, as did others, including Alice Bush and Paul Kaczocha, that he was my political mentor and that he taught me that without strong union organizations, the working class will face exploitation and that without a strong progressive political tradition, true democracy is impossible, no matter how well-intentioned leaders such as Barack Obama, whom we both admired, are.

Saturday evening, we played two social games previously unfamiliar to me, Codenames and Imagine If. In the former there were two teams of four each. Some 25 cards are dealt out on a rectangular grid with words on each, such as Hollywood, undertaker, sub, bed, etc. A clue giver from each team gives a one-word clue in an effort to get teammates to guess the cards that belong to them; if they guess one of the other teams, it works to their disadvantage, and one “death” card” means instant loss for whatever team is unfortunate to guess it. There are several other subtleties that make the game harder that it first appears.

More relaxing was Imagine If, which grandson James had played with friends at Valpo U. Everyone is on his own. People in turn read questions, such as “Imagine that [one of the players] is a bumper sticker slogan, which of [six possibilities, such as "Peace" or "Keep on Truckin'"] would it be?” We all had cards with numbers from 1 to 6 on them. We’d each guess what option seemed most appropriate, and whichever answer got the most votes, everyone who guessed that got a point. One question was, “Imagine if Jimbo were a movie? Which would he be.” Phil, Dave, and I all opted for “The Natural,” about a gifted baseball player, and each got a point. Anther went, “Imagine Toni was a song” and one answer was “My Way.” Everyone laughed when it was read, including Toni, and only kindhearted James guessed a different answer (“Let It Be”), perhaps thinking “My Way” would be seen as an insult. The final question: “Imagine if Dave had run over a neighbor’s cat when backing out of his driveway, how would he react?” Answers ranged from “Bury it without telling the owner” and “Put it in the street” to “Blame the owner for being negligent” to “Buy another cat that looked exactly like the dead one.” Everyone laughed at that possibility, but three people, including Phil, the winner, guessed it, while I went with “Blame the owner.”