Human Bingo

We're playing Human Bingo at work this week. Last Tuesday C. and L. decided to try and do something about our feeble social culture--people don't seem to talk to each other much beyond the adjacent cubicle--and sent around an email asking who wanted to play. Out of 40-plus people in the building, 27 said sure.

To play, we each submitted three facts about ourselves to C. or L., who explained they'd pick one out for each person, put them in a bingo card, the players would go around and figure out who belonged to each little tidbit about a life by talking to people they wouldn't normally have reason to, and fill in the bingo squares by having the person sign their personal mini claim to notoriety.

I thought it was a great idea. I'm not an especially outgoing person, yet it's hard for me to be enthused about going to work if I don't have positive and fun relationships with the people there. But what to write about myself? The pressure was on to reveal to the world how I saw myself ! And yet...the fun of it would be to tell things people wouldn't normally know.

I decided on 1) I was born at midnight and the nurses asked my dad to pick the date of my birthday; 2) my high school graduating class had 47 people; and 3) I read about a book a week, sometimes more.

When the bingo cards were distributed yesterday, I saw C. and L. had kept in all three facts for each player. It was a revelation to read the incredibly rich collection of little pieces and insights of 27 lives! People had things like "Dad would be 100 this year if he were still alive;" I had breakfast with Charles Dickens' great great grandson;" "I got to meet Rick Springfield in the early '80s;" "I have perfect pitch, whether it's music, a vacuum, or an alarm clock;" "I have been to two professional bull riding championships in Vegas;" "I like sharks;" and, my favorite set: "I speak English yet no one understand what I am saying, I lived in six different states--seven if you count the state of denial, I was given a ticket once for 'headed in the wrong direction' and my mother agreed."