Friday 18 October 2013

Game of Life

(the prompt was about games and child hood. I decided to put any words that are game titles in capitals)

'I may have to grow old, but I don't have to grow up.'

The good book says, "When I was a child, I spoke as a child, thought as a child, reasoned as a child. Now that [I am grown] I have put away childish things"

Really? Not our society. 'Childish Things' is big business.
That would be a good name for an OPERATION that sells them.
Some MASTERMIND repackages them in BREAKOUT movies.
I understand how hard it is to LEGO of childhood.

We can't let games have a MONOPOLY on out time, right?
We have to leave the TRIVIAL PURSUITs of life to work.

Maybe we can use some of our skills from games to help us:
TETRIS?--grocery bagger. CENTIPEDE?-Pest control expert.
RISK?-insurance agent(RISK assessment department, of course).
OPERATION?-how many doctors used to play this?
DEFENDER?-Lawyer(public defender) or the Dept. of Defense.

The real problem comes in facing the PITFALLs of real life.
I'm SORRY, I don't want to be all DOOM and gloom here,
But in this world we will have TROUBLE.

BARBIE is on 'the surreal housewives of MATELL'.
G.I. JOE has post traumatic stress disorder.
PAC MAN and HUNGRY HIPPPO have eating disorders.
HOPSCOTCH always did look like a sobriety test.
Maybe we skip the scotch and stop playing beer PONG.

'Win at any cost, but play by the rules', we were taught.
Seems the new rules are CHEAT but don't get caught.
CAPTURE THE FLAG is a hostile take over.
TAG is pass the buck, shift the blame, sling mud at your opponent.
It BOGGLEs the mind.

Don't get me wrong, I don't think we should put games away.
I'm encouraged by the popularity of games today.
Let's press the reset button and return to innocence and family.
Dig out your dusty rule book and read it again.
It is a guideline to success, fairness, and playing well with others.
Trade childishness for child-likeness.

To really paraphrase Jesus, "Never refuse a child your time and attention. This is a key to the kingdom of Heaven (or spiritual enlightenment if you will): it's not too late to change your ways. Approach life with child like faith, humility and wide-eyed wonder, and you will begin to see wonderful things and go to amazing places."  







3 comments:

  1. Had to come check out your game poem...same title as mine! Very different though...I like what you did and how you fit in all those games.

    Favorite line? "Tetris?--Grocery bagger." It made me laugh and I immediately flashed to a tetris-style grocery bagging extravaganza...bananas as the L-shapes, bread loaves the rectangles. Awesome!

    ReplyDelete
  2. I love the line about childishness and childlike-ness.

    ReplyDelete
  3. I liked the way you wove in all the names of different games. I almost get a sense of a rap poem (again, performance stuff), and wonder if that neat emphasis on rhyme would come out more in performing this, but that rap rhythm doesn't quite hold the whole piece together. I know we're supposed to celebrate what is. The poem has promise.

    ReplyDelete