And the winner this year….

…. Exploding Kittens!

Before you call the RSPCA hotline, I should say that no kittens were hurt in the writing of this column. For the uninitiated, Exploding Kittens is a card game – the object of which is to avoid getting obliterated and barred from play by an exploding kitten card. There’s one less kitten than players, ipso facto, a winner every time. You avoid annihilation and protect yourself with something soothing, a cat yoga card, for example… I won’t bore or confuse with all the detail; you get the picture.

It was a winner for many reasons.

It was a game everyone could play - easy to learn, players of different ages and abilities were placed on the same absurd, level playing field. It was fun. witty, amusing and quite absurd. We were all reading the cards and laughing, even as we were metaphorically blown to smithereens – you couldn’t really blame the kitten after all. It was a contrast from a game I remember from my childhood: Old Maid (quite un-PC nowadays). The cards all paired off – except one – the ‘old maid’ and whoever had that at the end was the loser. One of my early memories is of bursting into tears when the player next to me took the wrong card and I was declared the loser. It knocked TV specials, film premiers and every broadcaster’s wiles into a cocked hat. In stark contrast to what has become the modern social norm, each member of the family occupying their own private space consuming their own digital and social media in isolation, the words ‘anyone want to play Exploding Kittens?’ caused a stampede for the kitchen table.

Christmas is the time when people who normally rub along together for the 51 weeks of the year, come to blows when confronted with close confinement; it’s Relate’s busiest time of year. So finding some common purpose that caused everyone to abandon their digital devices and share time laughing and having fun together was a Christmas present to savour.

All we need now for 2018 is the social and political equivalent. A level playing field to reverse the current world order in which the world’s richest 500 saw their wealth increase by $1 trillion last year. 2017 had more than its share of gloom; let’s hope that 2018 is a bit more fun. And will we begin to see an end to the political victimisation of society’s losers; refugees, the elderly, those struggling with poor health or accessing a crumbling health service? What about social division? No-one could remain unmoved by the sight of rich and poor, young and old, privileged and oppressed, royalty and commoners pledging joint intent to working together for justice at the Grenfell memorial service.

Shame Exploding Kittens is only a game to play at home…