Fear and Video Games
Too many thoughts, but things are going well.
I've probably told you a few times now, but I feel things catastrophically. It's not always quite so bad as that, but I often feel things vividly. God grants me grace, and I can often ingest the feelings and let them pass through me.
I've probably told you a few times now, but I feel things catastrophically. It's not always quite so bad as that, but I often feel things vividly. God grants me grace, and I can often ingest the feelings and let them pass through me.
From Frank Herbert's Dune:
And so I had a recent bout of fear. It's funny how irrational I can be. What's worse is when I can rationally identify how irrational I'm being. But the fear still surges, and my vision still darkens, and the world shrinks, and the future looms, and it is too much. This bout was much better than the past though. In the past, fear may have gripped me for two or so weeks. This time, fear only gripped me for two or so days. Still, I can't live like that.
In other news, video games are back! I fasted therefrom, and I realized that I really do enjoy them. I am amused by the panicky haters. I also understand though. Some believe alcohol is inherently evil because of how much evil it has empowered. Similarly, some believe video games are inherently evil because of how much good they have muffled. "Absence" I called it once.
Ah, but the stories! You have missed so many beautiful stories: Kingdom Hearts, Grandia, Baldur's Gate, Skies of Arcadia, and so many more. I can never understand how people play Madden NFL. It started as John Madden Football back in 1988. Since then, it has had over 30 iterations! The most recent is Madden NFL 17. That is incomprehensible. The gameplay between the first Kingdom Hearts and Kingdom Hearts II—though of course the stories are beautiful and quite different. How can one milk almost 30 years worth of almost the exact same thing?! With no change in story?!
Then I wonder how people can watch football. Deep down, I understand perfectly. My initial, visceral reaction though is that it makes no sense.
Crazy stuff.
Video games (not TV extensions like Madden NFL), true video games are beautiful invitations into different worlds—different from but in agreement with just as many books. I wish I could share with you some of these worlds, but that would require just as much as sharing a book or even one of my own dreams. That would require time and attentiveness.
Sigh. Speaking of Michael, I have to pay him a wild visit.
I must not fear. Fear is the mind-killer. Fear is the little-death that brings total obliteration. I will face my fear. I will permit it to pass over me and through me. And when it has gone past I will turn the inner eye to see its path. Where the fear has gone there will be nothing. Only I will remain.Even more than feelings, I believe it is fear that grips me sometimes. Feelings themselves are typically neutral, and it is what we do with the feelings that makes them moral or immoral. Fear, however, always doubts God's goodness, always expects Him not to take care of us.
And so I had a recent bout of fear. It's funny how irrational I can be. What's worse is when I can rationally identify how irrational I'm being. But the fear still surges, and my vision still darkens, and the world shrinks, and the future looms, and it is too much. This bout was much better than the past though. In the past, fear may have gripped me for two or so weeks. This time, fear only gripped me for two or so days. Still, I can't live like that.
In other news, video games are back! I fasted therefrom, and I realized that I really do enjoy them. I am amused by the panicky haters. I also understand though. Some believe alcohol is inherently evil because of how much evil it has empowered. Similarly, some believe video games are inherently evil because of how much good they have muffled. "Absence" I called it once.
Ah, but the stories! You have missed so many beautiful stories: Kingdom Hearts, Grandia, Baldur's Gate, Skies of Arcadia, and so many more. I can never understand how people play Madden NFL. It started as John Madden Football back in 1988. Since then, it has had over 30 iterations! The most recent is Madden NFL 17. That is incomprehensible. The gameplay between the first Kingdom Hearts and Kingdom Hearts II—though of course the stories are beautiful and quite different. How can one milk almost 30 years worth of almost the exact same thing?! With no change in story?!
Then I wonder how people can watch football. Deep down, I understand perfectly. My initial, visceral reaction though is that it makes no sense.
Crazy stuff.
Video games (not TV extensions like Madden NFL), true video games are beautiful invitations into different worlds—different from but in agreement with just as many books. I wish I could share with you some of these worlds, but that would require just as much as sharing a book or even one of my own dreams. That would require time and attentiveness.
Sigh. Speaking of Michael, I have to pay him a wild visit.
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