The Games We Play

Movies always show groups of old men sitting around playing board games in the park, but I had never seen it in real life. Then I ran across these old men in Qingdao. I had to have a picture, but I didn’t want to walk up to them and interrupt their game to ask permission, especially when I knew it would involve dealing with language barriers and probably result in an awkwardly stage photo anyway.

So I told my daughter to hold pose for an picture, then zoomed behind her to capture the oldsters across the street. I’m pretty sure they never noticed, but my kid was on to me instantly.

“You just pretended to take a picture of me so you could take one of those old men, didn’t you?” she accused. Caught out, I refocused and took a second picture, this time of her face. But she still disapproved my deceptive little game.