I Do Not Like Board Games (another random post)

I do not like board games. I do not like board games for the same reason why I don’t like television. You can play games as a community, and perhaps it will build more community then watching television, but television can also be communal. I do not like television because it has absolutely no vitalization of our will and ability to create. But, come to think of it, neither does playing games. When you play a game, you take out the pieces, enjoy yourself for sometime and then put the pieces back. The only thing that has changed is that somebody has won. What have they won? A game. And, stupid as it seems, by winning that game they have given themselves a name in that game.

This name transpires into our lives, and “the family member who always wins Settlers” suddenly becomes the “intelligent one” or is simply boosted that much more in the appreciation of the family. We may not intend for this to happen, and we may not be even conscious of this happening, but it does. That person who wins becomes the person who wins. Then, that person suddenly has a reputation to maintain that he never bartered for in the first place. When he loses, there is boasting in the new winner, and the new winner will often put down the old winner in an attempt to make his or her victory that much greater.

Do you not see? Through the simple act of communal games, we put each other on pedestals only to later knock each other off. It is bad to be on a pedestal because it will make you feel important, or superior, but also because you will fall harder when you finally are knocked off.

So let us do something communally that truly is communal. Let us come together and create. We shall not waste our creative abilities by watching the television, nor by playing games. We shall use our creative abilities to sing songs together, for I know that my family is blessed in the realm of music. Perhaps we shall use our creative abilities to help the needy around us. Perhaps we shall use our creative abilities to make cards for those whom we love. Is this not what the youngest of us do? Create constantly? Why has that stopped in us as we have reached old age?