HARMONY, LAZY DAY AND POKER

     What a lazy day I had! No appointments, no visitors, - nothing. I played Wordosaur (a Scrabble-like game) online, cooked and took care of Roberta. 
     Since a few days ago, I got out a deck of playing cards, and Roberta taught me to play poker. Well, taught is a word that I say in exaggeration! Roberta loves to please people and is very good at guessing, what they want to hear. Unfortunately, that means that, our poker learning sessions went, kind of, like when Ricky played a prank on Lucy teaching her the wrong way to play golf!
     One time, a "straight" was three cards of the same value. The next time - it was four. One time, they had to be all of the same suit, the next - any suit that you found in your hand. One minute, we had to 'ante' before the cards were handed out, and the next - we didn't 'ante' at all!  I don't think, I will play with others yet: they will laugh me out of town!
     We played a few hands, then I offered to teach her a Russian card game called "The Fool". I don't know if poker usually is that boring. It took no brains  to play it at all. The Fool, on the other hand, is all about strategies. Roberta tried it for a few minutes, and, suddenly, she was short of breath! That lady has healthy heart and lungs, so I don't think there was anything really wrong with her, but the stress was too much! 

     She insisted on continuing to play, but I didn't bring up The Fool anymore after that. We slapped the cards around in poker, moved our pennies from one person to another (we share and divide the same tiny pile of coins that stays on the table waiting for us to begin another game). She is a pro in shuffling cards. I don't even offer to do it: they become living, wild things in my hands and fly and flip all over the place! 
     Is it wrong of me to accept Roberta's fibbing? At first, I was upset. I found out from Japanese ladies in our church about some big-time lies that she told. I was wondering too, why they were always so nice to her, knowing the truth?! At Roberta's eightieth birthday party last year, there were at least fifty people or more, most of them - Japanese. They all bowed and scraped and sang praises to her! 
     Someone told me that, in Japanese culture, truth is not as important as harmony in the family or another societal bloc. That's why, even knowing the lies that Roberta told about her life and, who knows, what else, the Japanese still love her up! 
     I decided that their was a wiser way! I stopped proudly telling people Roberta's life story, but I can love her and take care of her with an open heart. I hope, when I'm eighty-something, there will be people around me to accept and forgive my old age or just any inadequacies!