-Isms: Views on life in rural America

“Grandma, can I play a game on your phone?”

I’m not sure how many times Marcus uttered that sentence, Sunday. At least 100, I’m certain. Each time, I dashed his hopes with, “Grandma doesn’t have any games on her phone.”

Technically, I wanted him to burn off the sugar high after finding Easter eggs scattered across the backyard and devouring the contents.

Technically, I’m a bit territorial when it comes to my phone. It’s basically a storage drive for the 18,732 photos and 3,246 videos - the majority of them work-related - along with all my work contacts. The thought of losing all that data sends chills down my spine, even though I have it backed up on the cloud.

And, technically, what I told Marcus is the murky truth. I have Grandma games downloaded on my phone. Wordle is bookmarked and I’d already solved Sunday’s puzzle. There’s also Words with Friends and, since he’s four, I figured he wouldn’t be able to form enough high-scoring words in the Scrabble-like game. And, there’s a Solitaire game that involves purchasing “bucks” in order to play. I wasn’t willing to forego the 200,000 gems and $9 cash credit I’ve racked up.

None of them compare to the ultimate video game of my choice: Tetris.

Strangely, it’s an app I don’t have.

Back when phones weren’t connected to our hands, I was addicted to the colorful shape game, which relied on logic, strategy and critical thinking, to win.

When the PC game was released, my student aide, Darrin, and I would play one game every day, to determine who was best. He usually won, but there were days when I reigned supreme.

At home, after the kids shuffled off to bed, I’d grab one of their Game Boys and play until the early morning hours. Once I closed my eyes, I could see the tetrominoes drifting down the screen. Alas, I became a victim of the Tetris Effect.

Does the game have any positive effects? Yes.

In 2017, Oxford researchers discovered the game had “the potential to provide relief for people with post-traumatic stress disorder,” if they played a round after an incident.

University of California psychology professor and researcher, Richard Haier, proved that Tetris resulted “in an increased thickness of the cerebral cortex ... and how Tetris can affect the plasticity of cortical gray matter, potentially enhancing a person’s memory capacity and promoting motor and cognitive development.”

“It’s no wonder I can remember anything and everything,” I tell myself, a sly smile forming on my lips.

Tetris is a problem-solver. Let’s face it, when you juggle how shapes fit spaces, how rearranging and organizing them forms a perfect line, you’ve mastered Feng Shui through a video game.

Tetris teaches the art of patience. Sure, you can hold the down button and send a shape plummeting to the bottom line, but for the most part, Tetris requires players to not get flustered when a single line doesn’t work out.

That’s a trait I could’ve used when I heard the Marcus ask the question for the 101st time.