There Is No Ping without A Pong
In February 2020, my husband, Bob, and I were offered an outdoor pingpong table, but I was not good at pingpong at all. " What are we going to do with that?" Bob asked me. He clearly thought we were about to get something we did not 1 .
"The two of us will play. " I replied. Bob looked doubtful.
The pingpong table arrived 2 before the COVID-19 quarantines ( 隔 离) began. We were both working at home. Every day at a little after 5, if it wasn't rainy, we played pingpong for about 45 minutes, driving away the anxiety or 3 of another day in lockdown.
I lost every game. It didn't 4 me at first. Bob was enjoying the chance to 5 . But there were days when I hated losing. Once I threw my paddle across the yard in anger. Then one day Bob suggested I play with a handicap( 让步赛) of 12 points. That 6 a lot — I sometimes won! The effort of trying to win was 7 . Even when I lost a point, I enjoyed making Bob work harder for it.
Pingpong helped my husband and me 8 the worst of the lockdowns. The gift of the pingpong table gave us a way to have fun in a 9 time. It takes two willing partners to play table tennis. Similarly, it takes two people who would like to 10 happiness with each other to make a marriage. Simply put, when it comes to table tennis — or any other relationship — there is no ping without a pong.
