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Why Playing Pointless Guessing Games Is Good for the Soul

You learn it’s about the journey, not the destination.

Eve Peyser
3 min readApr 14, 2022
Image: Le Penseur by Jean-David & Anne-Laure via Wikimedia Commons | Edited by Eve Peyser

My boyfriend Hudson and I were walking along a thin creek, a streak of water cutting through the barren desert landscape. Immersed in deep conversation, we paused for a moment to admire a white egret, dinosaur-like, walking in the water, and then got back to business.

“Is it scripted or unscripted?” he asked.

We were playing our favorite guessing game and nature would have to wait. I had pulled up a list of the top-rated television shows in 2009, and Hudson, after correctly identifying one through seven, was trying to figure out what number eight was. After establishing that it was a CBS reality show that wasn’t about singing or surviving, he asked, “What would Ronald Reagan say about this show?”

I modulated my voice, transforming my high-pitched vocal fry into that familiar lilting baritone, calm and strangely maternal. “Well Hudson,” I said, “I think it’s a great show. It brings all types of Americans together.” Immediately the answer clicked: it was Undercover Boss.

Guessing games are for children, but I guess I’m young at heart, because I can’t get enough of them. Even before Covid confined us to our homes, I was always looking for fun ways to engage…

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Eve Peyser
Eve Peyser

Written by Eve Peyser

nyc native living in the pnw. read my writing in the new york times, nymag, vice, and more.

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