Vilma Fuentes: Don't ask me how I kill time

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the cards or playing cards propose multiple combinations and games. There are those played by two or more people. There are also those called solitaires , played, as the name suggests, by a single person. Solitaire is, therefore, an entertainment in which there are no rivals, unless you consider the rival at random. It is a matter of chance in the position of the cards arranged by the player according to the rules of the Solitaire selected. A chance that is imposed on the player when he must choose which card to uncover. A decision or selection where luck reigns, that chance that has never been abolished, as Stéphane Mallarmé wrote in his enigmatic poem “Un coup de dés jamais n'abolira le hasard” ( A roll of the dice will never abolish chance ).

The Solitaire player can let himself drift off into vague daydreams or think about some problem that is troubling him. Solitaire does not absorb the mind of the player and leaves him free to wander as in the dissection of his problems. It is possible to say that Solitaire is a pastime played in the most diverse social classes, by people of different ages: young or old, by men and women, in distant countries across the globe; by active people as well as by idle people. There are those who seek answers and signs that will reveal the future to them or those who hope to find the solution to a problem. There are the superstitious who will throw the cards over and over again until they win the game, forgetting the passage of time.

There are those who seek to see victory in their lives, reciprocity in love, fortune in their work; in short, triumph within their reach when they win. Solitaire's unique advantage: it can be played over and over again until success is achieved; that is, until the winning combination is obtained. There are also those who play simply to pass the time.

In French, Solitaire is also known as la réussite , a word that translates as success or triumph . The name of the game therefore implies the victory of the person dealing the cards. Thus, perhaps the charm and attraction of this game is that it will always end up being won. It is just a matter of time.

It is a question, then, of a time that is distracted from work or employment, that is perhaps stolen from more spiritual activities such as reading, to bet on oneself, risking happiness or even life. Hence, perhaps, the phrase at once superficial and profound, with which the Solitaire player, when asked what he does, often answers: killing time .

Killing time, nothing more, nothing less. If it were possible to kill time, we would kill none other than our own, that is, the time that we are. That time that escapes death and that we take with us. Perhaps it is impossible to kill the time that we live. The suicide may perhaps kill himself, but the time that he lived is still there, in his being there , the dasein, being conscious of being , according to the terminology of the philosopher Martin Heidegger.

Solitaire players may think they are killing time because they stop to watch it. Solitaire is, after all, a pastime par excellence. A very old game, it could be of Roman origin. Ovid, a Latin poet (43 BC), is the first author to give a detailed description of the game. The philosopher Leibnitz wrote in 1710: Solitaire serves to perfect the art of meditation . This game enjoyed its first heyday in France during the 18th century, during the reign of Louis XV, introduced to the court by a nobleman who sought to amuse himself in his moments of solitude… perhaps during a confinement in the Bastille. The English adopted it in the 19th century and Lady Cardogan's book, Illustrated Games of Patience, helped to popularize it. Today's digital versions captivate millions of people.

Legend and history come together to see Napoleon and De Gaulle as two Solitaire players killing time with no hope left for them.

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