Spring 2008 - The Western District » Kappa Kappa Psi | Tau Beta ...

The AccentSpring 2008 EditionUNO - More than just a card game[by Kelly “Icebearer” Porter]While planning the last membershipeducation meeting for our Eta class, Iwanted to make it a little bit different. Theyhave learned about the people, the datesand the places. Now I need to be sure theyall knew what this meant. While trying to designa lesson around brotherhood and what it means tobe in a KKPsi chapter a brother gave me the ideaof sticking to what I know: UNO. Sounds crazybut when I presented an analogy between UNOand KKPsi to the Eta class I was shocked by theresponse it got. There were a few laughs, notat what a basket-case I was, but at the humorof comparing a fraternity to a card game. Thetalk was followed up by many hands of amass UNO game during which brothers werereferring to the meanings of the cards they putthem down.I would like to share this parallel with you in thehopes that it will mean something to you. If itdoesn’t, at least you will have enjoyed reading andlaughing at the crazy ramblings of a brother fromLambda Alpha!Any given deck has many different numbercards. These come in different colors anddifferent numbers. Each one can represent amember of the chapter. Everyone is different;they come from different backgrounds (theircard color) and they vary in the amount of timeand commitment they put into the chapter (whatnumber they are). If you had only two numbersthere would not be as many different plays and thegame would not be as much fun. With a whole deckof different cards there are many different peoplethat can bring experiences and ideas to the table.Skip cards signify the things that we skip. Asa fraternity we don’t drink, haze, or rush. Weknow that the game can continue and be muchmore fun without them.The Draw 2 cards help to bring all the brotherstogether. They can be bad at first, but thenbecome good when you see what you havedrawn. Take for example convention. It’sexpensive, you get very little sleep, and thereare lots of long meetings. But, you gain somuch! Friends, memories, new officers and mostimportantly, the sense of brotherhood.Reverses are the little things that make you lookat things differently. They cause a change inperspective. If you only look at things from oneperspective, clockwise, you are missing so manyopportunities. When someone switches thingsup and cause you to look from another pointof view, counterclockwise, you have a wholenew view on the situation and have gainedperspective.A Wild card is the surprises. They don’t have to begood or bad; they just simply happen. As a chapteryou have to adapt to keep playing the game. Themore you play the easier it gets to deal with thesesurprises. They no longer halt the game but aresimply a bump in the road that is soon overcome.Draw 4, ironically, is the “Brotherhood Card”.They are the bad things that happen within thechapter. They just get thrown out there but whenthey do we can learn from them. When you areforced to cope with the 16 new cards added toyour hand you develop new strategies and waysto help avoid the problem the next time it comesup.The whole game is a balance of all of the players(the number cards) and the cards thrown in thatshake things up a bit (Reverse, Draw 2, Skip, Wild,Draw 4). Without every piece the game wouldnot be as much fun or meaningful. Every timeyou play it is different. This is so much likethe fraternity that we all know and love. Ourchapter and district would be nothing without thebrothers in them and the experiences that we allgo through.Page 32