AgainstTheWind

Discord

In the service at John Calvin in Tulsa today, part of the text was

Acts 6:1 In those days when the number of disciples was increasing, the Grecian Jews among them complained against the Hebraic Jews because their widows were being overlooked in the daily distribution of food.

I did manage to remain upright in the pew, but it reminded me of a story I've wanted to write in the style of Lucia and Mapp. You see the bridge club just about came apart. There were bad feelings and ill will on every side. I was working at the time and only played in the night games, so I was uninvolved, just observing, trying to figure out what was going on.

In bridge as in churches as in social functions, the abiding maxim is, "if you feed them they will come." (Works for elections too. The candidates used to feed the election commisioners in Louisiana while they were sitting at the polls for their 14 hour days.)

The bridge club was in the habit of throwing a dinner game, a party at the slightest excuse. The Social Chairman, a woman who had no doubt of her organizational skills, would haul out her silver and set us a wonderful table. But in exchange for her cooking, she felt entitled to bring the left overs home and freeze them for her family, or to distribute them as she saw fit.

Another member of strong character and stronger opinions, decided that since the club paid for the meat dish, the club should be able to use those left overs to make sandwiches or stew for another party. By the time the dust settled, the club had just about come unglued over the 'she said' and 'they said', and 'Did you hear what --did?'

In the end the board decided that the club would distribute the left overs, the main complainer became the club manager, the Social Chairman quit in a pique, and after some years it pretty well died down, but the parties have not been as nice or as elaborate since.

And it has ever been thus....

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