Is Life More Like Scrabble or Bananagrams? Finding Meaning in the Games We Play
After a weekend of playing word games, I started thinking:
Is life more like Scrabble or Bananagrams?
I’ve been playing Scrabble ever since grade school. My mother was an excellent player and knew all the tricky words to get a high score.
But a while back, our daughter Jenna gave Jeff and me the Bananagrams game as a gift. Jeff and I have played game after game since then. We love it. It’s fast-paced, flexible, and chaotic in a good way.
Like Scrabble, Bananagrams also uses a pile of tiles with individual letters. Each player draws a set number of tiles to form words.
But the similarities mostly end there. Here’s how the two games differ:
- Board vs. No Board
With Scrabble, you place your tiles on a shared board with designated squares. Bananagrams has no board—just an open tabletop or surface. - Turn-Based vs. Simultaneous Play
In Scrabble, players take turns. I place a word on the board. Then you place a word connecting with a previous word. In Bananagrams, everyone makes words at the same time, but totally disconnected from each other, each in our own space. - Fixed vs. Flexible Words
With Scrabble, once a word is played, it’s locked in for the remainder of the game; no changes allowed. With Bananagrams, you can rearrange or completely restart your grid at any time. - Scoring vs. Speed
Scrabble rewards strategic play with points—whoever has the most points at the end of the game wins. Bananagrams rewards speed—the first person to use all their tiles wins, regardless of the difficulty or number of words made.
Which game is more like real life?
For now, I’m leaning toward Scrabble.
While life isn’t as neat as a proper Scrabble board, or as structured as its one-turn-at-a-time rule, life does run smoother when we play interdependently like Scrabble requires. You do something; I respond. I change something; you adjust.
We’re building something together, even when we don’t realize it. We’re not racing toward a finish line, but rather running together, shaping each other.
But with Bananagrams, we’re all working in our separate space, eyes down, hoping we finish first. We don’t help each other. We’re not in it together. We’re each just going as fast as we can.
That can be fun for a game. I definitely love playing Bananagrams.
But it’s not a pattern of play I want to copy in my life.
I don’t want to “win” life by going faster. I want to love life by playing together.
On game night, I’ll play both games with gusto. But in my real life, I’ll take shared boards, community building, and the joy of writing our stories together anytime.
Which games feels more like your life right now—Scrabble or Bananagrams? Share in the comments.
revised from the archives
- What the Algorithm Did to Our Words—and Why It Matters
- How Is Your One Word Growing, Moving, and Speaking to You?
I absolutely love this analogy here today, Lisa. Yes, I choose the Scrabble route for building relationships and learning how interdependent we are in real life. Bananagrams does sound like fun, though. Blessings!
I would have to agree with you, Lisa. I’d definitely pick the Scrabble way of life over Bananagrams. I especially liked the way you described Bangaram’s way of life as living with our eyes down…which shuts everyone else out. While I will readily admit to being an introvert, I NEED people, I NEED community in my life. Thanks, Friend, for this post!
Such delightful insight, Lisa, and well-described. Yes, I agree: The Scrabble-like life is the one I aspire to as well!
I love the way your mind RIPPLES from games to life and metaphors at that! Well done. Michael is not patient w/ SCRABBLE b/c it takes forever. Plus, we have a friend who has literally played with world SCRABBLE champions and is amazingly adroit at the game. He has memorized every two-letter word in the English language. He is impossible to beat. It is NO fun to play w/ him. (Think of a metaphor for that)! Still, SCRABLLE IS fun game, and good for building one’s vocab (always of interest to me). We can try Banana grams. Sounds fun!
Love that you family is playing games. A family who plays together stays together. We were just at Mike’s brother’s and played the most RIDICULOUS game of chance called Pass the Pigs. It is without the dumbest game we have ever played, but wow, did we have fun!!!
Here is a video explaining this game of sheer ridiculous chance (after the commercials).
https://www.bing.com/videos/riverview/relatedvideo?q=pass+the+pigs+game&&mid=FF494F162B2BF5A838B1FF494F162B2BF5A838B1&FORM=VAMGZC
xo
L
BTW, my family hated to play Monopoly w/ Michael. He hated that that game took forever, so he was making “side deals” behind people’s backs. The game was over in record time and my dad and bros didn’t know what hit them! He spoiled all their fun!
Reminds me too when Mike took Daddy shopping. My father LOVED to shop, study tear sheets w/ coupons, scout out best deals etc. He took his time, comparing this w/ that. One time, Mike took his list and hit the aisles and finished it all in five minutes and was ready to leave, ANDd Daddy also then did not know what hit him. He was only on aisle one BROWSING! Again, michael took all the fun out of the quest! 🙂
xo
L
Love this, Lisa. Honestly, I would probably choose the solitary activity and then realize my mistake later. It’s more comfortable to be alone sometimes, but it’s not how we grow. Wonderful post. I love seeing what you’ll write about next.
Great analogies, Lisa. Your preferred style is how my husband and I play our daily Wordle game: shared board, working as a team, and the joy in taking the journey together. <3
What a neat analogy! I’ve never played Bananagrams. That might be fun to do when the kids are here. I agree that I’d like the Scrabble way of life better–a slower pace, not as much chaos, time to think, building together (unless someone takes my spot! 🙂 )
You might enjoy a game called Ransom Notes. We just got this in December, and it was a blast. Everybody chooses a handful of word magnets, then tries to make a sentence from a prompt. Some of the sentences are hilarious. The only negative is, as you get a new handful of words between turns, it takes everyone a while to arrange them.
fun analogy and I agree with you. I did laugh as we have been playing aggravation. What does that say??? oh no!!
I really need to think about this, Lisa—and I need to buy a Bananagrams game!
I LOVE Bananagrams … so much fun on those rare occasions when the family is here. And maybe even more enjoyable on my own when I play against the clock. Thanks for the prompt to pull that cute little bag off the shelf and have some fun on this hot, humid day.
Have a sweet weekend, Lisa.
I like the individuality and unstructured nature of Bananagrams and then discussing and laughing after each round.
We’re a bit too serious in my house. Bananagrams brings the laughter in a way scrabble doesn’t.
Lisa, I just love what you’ve done here. I’ve never played Bananagrams it sounds interesting. But I agree Scrabble seems like a more “life’ like way of living.
Thanks so much for sharing with Sweet Tea & Friends this month dear friend.
xo
I love both games, and I think this is such a great analogy. I prefer Scrabble and I agree that mostly life is better lived with the connection and interactions with others. When we play Scrabble in our family, yes we each play to win, but we also cheer each other when someone plays a really high-scoring word and the best games are those that use the whole board, have no letters left unused, and where the scores are pretty competitive. Visiting from ST&F