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Being born in the early 80’s I had the pleasure of growing up right as the video game age really got going; the time right after pong when games were cool but never questionable. Today’s games push the envelope at every turn and often are the cause of great controversy for their inclusion of graphic violence, language or nudity. Basically, as my generation has grown the industry has grown right along with it. With this shift I have seen everything from the original Super Mario to the advent of technology in which the same sort of program on which military machinery is run can be found in your own basement as you battle friends on the other side of the world. I have seen the bad, well I actually never saw the bad, but I heard about it, the good and the ugly.

One of the good was a style of game which can still be found today in which you run around as some character exploring different areas from a third person vantage point, usually as a warrior or ninja of some sort. These types always struck my fancy because there were many ways to play them. They often came with more than 1 playable character so you could beat the game several times without much redundancy. What was especially cool about them was that you could play through the story quickly but then go back and really explore finding extra content in the game.

My brothers were always of the persuasion to just beat the game as quickly as possible while I preferred to explore, explore, explore. I’d go through every dungeon, cave and grotto making sure to small all the pots and collect all the little shiny orbs, the sluggish pace killed my brothers. I did this so that I could have the best and richest experience possible the first time through because once I finished the story with a certain character, I knew I would never be really interested in going back to that character, once the story was done, I was done.

It struck me the other day how deeply this mirrors our own real existence. We too get one chance to go through the game of life and we can either power through life or we can slow it down a little and go for the rich experience looking into every nook and cranny exploring all there is to explore. Sure, enough my brothers got to new areas and accomplished the “goal” faster but what good is that if you don’t remember any of it because you went so fast. You don’t get a chance to replay life so live it well the first time because it’s also your only time.

Prayers Always,
Fr. Joseph