[News] Bridge this week, and an open letter

Dear friends, I'm delighted that we'll be open for business on Monday, and saddened by the loss we've all shared this past week. Several of our players lost their homes, and some suffered injury. As we prepare to open for a new week, my friend and partner Zachary asked to send this open letter: ------------------------------------------------------------------------ My dear friends, As the smoke fills the air, as the ash imitates rain, as we all stare out the window wondering what will befall us next, I want to take a moment and share something with you. A year and a half ago my life fell apart.  Nothing as dramatic as fire, but to me, just as devastating.  When these things happen, the future seems impossible, and the past feels like a cruel joke. Not knowing what to do, I just tried to move forward.  For me, that was the Bridge Club.  It was a place where I could greet you and we could do a silly thing and treat it seriously, we could laugh and gossip and get angry at each other and then forgive each other...because without each other we don't have a game. I also invested myself into the "social" bridge program we created.  The new players who are just discovering how wonderful and maddening each hand of bridge is...that feeling of excitement when arranging...dread when we misplay...relief when the finesse holds.  On and on and on.  For hours and hours we would go through the hands and talk about what we could have done better and how we will NEXT time. Somehow, in this repetition, a new structure in me was made. One that enabled me to move a bit further, and a bit more forthrightly, into a very uncertain future. Forgive my self-indulgence.  I say all that merely to say this:  when it is safe again please come to the bridge club.  Please be around friends and get away from turmoil (if only for a moment). Please structure your way forward around a community who cares for you and needs you.  Please think of mentoring a new player. Please think of bringing a friend along.  Please think of the happy days ahead and please think of the miserable ones too - I assure you those days will be made better by being in a room, playing cards, surrounded by family. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ This week at the club: * All Open games will be Club Championships * Our two Wednesday and Thursday evening classes will be pushed one week on the calendar, and start this week My wife Jane and I are taking a few days to be together for our 25th wedding anniversary. I'll be at my regular game on Wednesday. Zachary can't wait to open the bridge club on Monday morning. Come play and we'll start healing together. Very best regards, Mojo -- build message Morris "Mojo" Jones mojo(a)PasadenaBridgeClub.com https://PasadenaBridgeClub.com <https://pasadenabridgeclub.com> Pasadena Bridge Club <https://pasadenabridgeclub.com>