Endless Possibilities
By Sandy Balayan
April 2026
What do I love so much about games? Always have and always will. But why? I recently contemplated this question and think I may have finally realized the reason I am fascinated with almost all games. There are obviously too many to count but I will focus on playing cards to illustrate my point for you. Fifty-two cards, often with two jokers. Four suits numbered two through ten, then jack, queen, king, ace. Ace can sometimes be a one but seems too grand in my book to be anything but a high card. With these fifty-two cards one can play an endless assortment of games and variations on those games. What a gift! An inexpensive way to be entertained endlessly, and easy to use in many different ways.
Cards can be traced back to ninth century China and following the trade routes. Cards were then popular in Europe around 1350. By the fifteenth century, France came up with the four suits and red and black iterations. Standardized somewhat by the 18th century, the United States added the colorful jokers in the nineteenth century for a game they called Euchre.
So taking these 52 cards plus two jokers, we can safely say the possibilities are endless. The obvious games–poker and its many variations, gin, rummy, and later trick-taking games, like bridge, pinochle and canasta, were added. There was even a game to be played alone, aptly named solitaire and within that game were many variations.
Cards offer a certain amount of skill but also luck and strategy. With the beautiful illustrations of the face cards, the nobility and upper-class-created decks painted by professional artists. You can play anywhere, carry them anywhere. They are versatile and easy to store. You don’t need any special equipment to play except possibly a pen and pad to keep score if the game you are playing requires that. Over time, the simplicity and portability led to more sophisticated games with betting. Different cultures added their own adaptations and the popularity of cards grew yearly. Adaptable, inventive, easily modified and reinvented. A canvas for human play and creativity. This universal canvas taps into the basic tenets of connection and challenge. Cards are a fun mental workout and an escape from daily life. You can have fun with others and bond with friends. With thousands of games impossible to count, the choices are endless.
Wait a minute. Is this not a metaphor for life? We all have endless choices in life that unfold over time and can lead us down a new path. Life might not be quite as flexible as cards, or as fun, but, the possibilities are there. We just must tap into it and use our creative minds to take advantage of all there is out there for us. A simple deck of fifty-two cards has a lot of things to teach us. Shuffle them, mix them up, deal them out and follow some new paths. Enjoy the nuances change can bring, and don’t be afraid to try anything. Why not? We only play life once and we might as well play it to the fullest, and try to have fun doing it!
