good [clean] fun

I said it jokingly . . . and thought at the time even that I was joking. But the truth is that I was quite serious: going around the Thanksgiving table yesterday, we told of things we were thankful for. I said something along the lines of being grateful that my teammates allowed me to play in our morning flag football game even though I had a tendency to run in the wrong direction . . .
I am no real athlete, in the sense of being completive against others in any given game. So I always appreciate it when more accomplished folks are patient with my lightly-skilled self.
But after joking about it yesterday, I realized that, in fact, I was seriously grateful for the activity as well. Here where I live it is a rare privilege–a joy to savour–when women are allowed to compete like this; and in our case, against men, no less! So on this Thanksgiving day we [I believe I can truthfully enough speak for us all] enjoyed every minute of the dust and dirt, the bumps and bruises, the tags and tackles . . . and the time out to just forget all the seriousness of life as we know it and just have some football fun :-)