Mar
19
This post is based on a prompt from the Oblique Strategies (1st Edition) developed by Brain Eno and Peter Schmidt.
Courage! Courage? Really? How many chances does the average guy have to demonstrate courage? I’m not talking about soldiers on the battlefront. Or Tibetan monks facing Chinese soldiers. Just normal American guys like me.
Perhaps I’ve been reading too many books about the apocalypse lately, but I’m starting to doubt my manliness. The most terrifying situation I find myself in these days is a job interview. And I think I’m getting a little better at these. Think about courage, about what it means to stand up for something, to perhaps give your life for something. This goes a lot further than walking down a dark corridor or snooping through an abandoned house. My tenth grade history teacher said the great thing about the American revolution was that “thirteen loosely organized colonies rose up to fight the number one military power in the world and won”.
That’s courage. I’m sitting here breaking down the cushion on the right side of our couch.
I don’t think I’m alone here. We’ve diminished as a culture. I’d say “consumers”, but would risk sounding like some kind of coffee shop beatnik. But it’s kind of true. We’re insulated, so far from pre-antibiotic hardships.
I feel a rant coming on here, so I’ll go another way.
We watched a couple of documentaries lately, Darkon and The King of Kong. Both movies made me think of courage a bit. At least what courage means in the twenty-first century first world.
Darkon follows a group of live action role playing gamers in Maryland. These are the folks who dress up in full fantasy garb and fight with foam swords and axes. I’ve seen these people in action, but didn’t know how deep the game went. It turns out there is an entire game world the players are experiencing. They fight these battles and wars for lands on an imaginary map. It’s complex: alliances, betrayals, politics. Like a lot of things, there’s a lot more going on once you start poking around.
The King of Kong follows a challenger as he attempts to become the world champion of Donkey Kong. Although it sounds like a simple feat (just get the highest score, right?), the challenge quickly becomes complicated. Alliances, betrayals, politics.
Here’s my point, so far as I can reason. We’ve become diluted. The average person doesn’t face much strife, does not ever face a challenge like previous generations. So people turn to other endeavors to try and win some of this back, to feel some sense of accomplishment. Perhaps it’s an elaborate fantasy game. Perhaps it’s a thirty year old video game. It doesn’t matter. The point is that these challenges are no less real and intimidating so long as the players are emotionally invested.
I’ve said before that I have a lot of respect for people who are way into a hobby. I say game on. Just do something, feel something.
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Time to get it done.
Take the 1 tspn of Cinnamon challenge.