Gamer for Life - 12/1/2008

I was given Chrono Trigger for my birthday a few days ago, about fourteen years after I got it for my 15th Birthday in fact.  It was released for the DS this year as opposed to the Super Nintendo back in '95, with a slightly better translation, a new ending, brief cut scenes, and a new dungeon.  To this day it remains one of my favorite games of all time, and it's probably the single strongest stand-alone RPG ever made.  But I'll leave my flamboyant hyperbole for my Reviews with Music page, because this is where I go to rant or make a point with my writing.  

See, I think we're all gamers at heart.  Human beings need distractions, they need to preoccupy themselves with a fun diversion to get their minds off of the monotony of work.  This came easy when we were kids.   As children, our imaginations were never saddled with the burden of having to provide for ourselves or for our loved ones.  For many of us, our survival was guaranteed....therefore we could spend our days in make believe, creating new and intricate games, and playing until it was time to eat, go to sleep, or go to school.  Life didn't have time to sap our energy or drain or mind of possibilities, that's why everything seemed so interesting and exciting. But even as we age, we keep time for play...and spend countless hours doing just that, whether we realize it or not.

Everyone loves games.  Whether they're videogame nerds like I am, or sports fans, poker-players or crossword nuts, people have a sort of biological impulse demanding that they take a break from reality and devote themselves to something seemingly arbitrary.  But maybe there's meaning to the games we become invested in, perhaps there's a spiritual significance to being playful and carefree.  To be carefree is to not have a care, like Adam and Eve in the garden of Eden.  To not be concerned about the welfare of anything or anyone; to just BE and enjoy life.

I feel that when Jesus said, and I'm paraphrasing here; "You must be like a child in order to enter the gates of Heaven," his meaning was probably in line with a fear I have about MoPH.  In order to truly enjoy My own Personal Heaven, I will have to leave my cynicism and selfishness and allow myself to experience all of the wonders that exist within an infinite number of universes.  To do, have, and be anything I want, whenever I want to.  This is an extraordinary opportunity with staggering implications and perhaps the reason I'm not in MoPH RIGHT NOW is because I refuse to allow myself the luxury of such an unlimited experience.    I'm afraid that even when I finally awaken in MoPH, I'll become bored and jaded to the experience if I get there with my present mindset.  But maybe that's a mechanism of MoPH, put in place to ensure I won't go there UNTIL I'm capable of enjoying it fully, as a child would.

So in order to return to MoPH, I think I've outlined it quite clearly...I have to become a child again, in awe and wonder of the astounding nature of the universe.  However, it seems that if I become any more of a child in certain aspects, I may just go ahead and have to get back in the womb.