I know I talk a lot about Qabalistic (or Kabbalistic) things, like the Tree of Life. I also blather on and on about numerology and the relationship between numbers and words. Now, while this stuff can sound pretty esoteric, there is a common, everyday board game that approaches these highly arcane subjects in a relatively simple way.
I speak, of course, of Scrabble.
Each tile has a letter, and each letter has a numeric value (from 10 points for the Z and the Q, to 1 point for vowels and common letters like T and N). Players stare at their rack of seven tiles, anagramming like fiends, trying to find the big play, given the current board situation. It's alternately maddening and rewarding, like a love affair with a deeply disturbed human.
There have been about 150 million Scrabble sets sold world-wide. It is estimated that one in three American households owns a set. What is the appeal? Sure, it's harmless fun, builds word power, etc., but there's more. There's a Scrabble cult, since it touches something in the human psyche so deeply that its pull cannot be denied.
There are people, like some of the Qabalistic scholars of old, who become so obsessed with the game that they go over the edge, shall we say. Consider the documentary Word Wars, for instance. Nobody is more taken with the game than characters like "G.I. Joel" Sherman (the G.I. stands for gastrointestinal), tai-chi word machine Joe Edly, brain supplement freak Matt Graham, and spliff-tokin' Marlon Hill. These guys are as fascinating as a traffic accident (but not nearly so gross - though you may not agree once you get a look at G.I. Joel's apartment in the film), and they're all going for the national championship. All in all, a very interesting portrayal. But don't take my word for it, judge for yourself. Here's the trailer:
A flash animation, entitled Craziest, by Liz Dubelman (of VidLit), takes the mystical aspects of Scrabble a little further. In this funny and clever work, she pursues the game as oracle. It's a position that any Scrabble player can relate to. Even non-players can get a message from this. After all, the human mind is driven to make sense and patterns from the seeming chaos known as reality.
In this pattern-making, we feel power and control, and maybe it's true. Like the guy in the Word Wars trailer says, "See, in this game, you can beat God if you got the right tiles."
My Scrabble prayer to you: May you have many multi-bingo Scrabble games, and may you hit the triple-triple before you die.
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