There is a secret society operating right under our noses. More and more it is becoming apparent that this "movement" which once inspired an entire police division to investigate its activities, is no longer relegated to the fringe elements of society. It has found a following in the lives of some of this country's most influential citizens – American women. No longer content in their placid and overcommitted lives, women from all walks, ages and ethnicities are coming out of the shadows and proudly declaring they are bunco babes.
Mysterious to some, this new generation of dice-throwing buncettes refuses to be defined by the past, when "bunco squads" raided smoke-filled speakeasies where bunco players swilled bootleg whiskey and good old boys exchanged the realities of home for gambling away a pocketful of cash. Today, it's the good old girls who are getting out of the house.
I would get a first-hand look at this secret world when a friend asked if I'd like to attend a bunco night. I literally had butterflies, imagining I was about to join the Ya-Ya mafia. Would I learn a secret handshake or get a decoder ring? I wondered if I should go in disguise, or park around the corner. Would a bunco squad be staked out? All I knew about bunco was that its members are fanatics. Would I become a fanatic, too?
My first surprise was a room of familiar faces, a dozen women, half of whom I knew well and many whom I have admired for years. These were not smoke-filled back room kinds of girls, but women of virtue, character and kindness. Yet surprisingly, here they were part of this mysterious group. Bunco, I discovered, is not a subversive entity, at all; it's a party! And even though I was only a sub for the night, I was welcomed with open arms. I can't explain the experience any better than the description posted on the World Bunco Association's Web site.
"Twelve of us get together once a month, leaving the cares and worries behind, and leaving the kids with their fathers or baby-sitters. We fall off our diets, snacking on M&Ms, Chex-Mix, or anything else we can get our hands on. We have appetizers, a delicious dinner and seconds on dessert. We talk about our kids. About the neighbors. About anyone who didn't show up. About our husbands, our jobs, their jobs, TV shows, current events and anything else that might tickle our fancy. Oh yeah, and we play a silly, mindless dice game, with wild abandon, and give out prizes."
What's not to love? Food, friends and fabulous prizes. No wonder people around the world are joining the bunco craze, with groups reported everywhere, except Russia and China. Maybe that explains their troubles.
Temporarily suspending the isolation many feel, bunco is reconnecting people, 12 at a time. The only problem is that you may be waiting a long time for a "regular" to drop out and make space for you. I know of a place, however, that always has an extra seat for those who are looking to escape their isolation and discover something truly life changing — your local church.
Perhaps you have always thought of church people as subversive, different or mysterious. The truth is — we are. We rebel against the notion that life is hopeless. We open arms to those who come empty-handed. We offer a revolutionary message of free forgiveness. And we talk about a radical thing called grace. Men, women, young and old find a place to belong, to serve, to worship, to hope, to love and to be loved in that subversive place called the church.
So then, "Let us not give up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but let us encourage one another — and all the more as you see the Day approaching." Hebrews 10:25
No wonder people around the world are meeting together in Christ's name, (even in Russian and China) and proudly becoming fanatics.
