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The Guardian - AU
The Guardian - AU
Lifestyle
Eleanor Gordon-Smith

My husband is seriously competitive in our weekly bridge matches. Am I abnormal not to care if I win or lose?

Card-Players, Alexander Voet (I), After Cornelis de Vos, 1632 print. Two men and a man with a woman sit around a table during a card game
‘People have different emotional constitutions and they show up in what we count as fun.’ Artwork: Card-Players by Alexander Voet, 1632. Photograph: Rijksmuseum/Alamy

My husband and I have different opinions on competition. He has always been very competitive, in many areas of life. We used to play bridge together but I had to stop being his bridge partner for my mental health. He was serious about the weekly games and insisted that we study, practise and do postmortems on numerous games. To be honest, once we’d left the bridge club on any day, I couldn’t have cared less about if we’d won or lost.

I’ve asked friends about how they feel about winning and have been told, “Everybody wants to win,” and “Well, you definitely feel better if you win than if you lose,” but I don’t feel that way.

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